THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 451 



known ; " daughters are treated " with confidence and kindness ; " and 

 when marriages are being arranged, " there is a consulting the des- 

 tined bride ; " to which add the reciprocal trait that " it is deemed 

 shameful to leave old parents entirely alone." The Dyaks, again, 

 largely industrial, and having an unmilitant social structure, yield the 

 fact stated by Brooke, that " the practice of infanticide is rare," as 

 well as the facts before named under another head, that children have 

 the freedom implied by regular courtship, and that girls choose their 

 mates. We are told of the Samoans, who are more industrial in social 

 structure and habit than neighboring Malayo-Polynesians, that infan- 

 ticide after birth is unknown, and that children have the degree of in- 

 dependence implied by elopements when they cannot obtain parental 

 assent to their marriage. Similarly with the Negritos inhabiting the 

 island of Tanna, where militancy is slight and there are no pronounced 

 chieftainships: of them we read in Turner that "the Tannese are 

 fond of their children. No infanticide there. They allow them every 

 indulgence, girls as well as boys." Lastly, there is the case of the in- 

 dustrious Pueblos, whose children were unrestrained in marriage, and 

 by whom, as we have seen, daughters were especially privileged. 



Thus with a highly-militant type there goes extreme subjection of 

 children, and the status of girls is still lower than that of boys ; while 

 in proportion as the type becomes non-militant, there is not only more 

 recognition of children's claims, but the recognized claims of boys and 

 girls approach toward equality. 



Kindred evidence is supplied by those societies which, passing 

 through the patriarchal forms of domestic and political government, 

 have evolved into large nations. Be the race Turanian, Semitic, or 

 Aryan, it shows us the same connection between political absolutism 

 over subjects and domestic absolutism over childi*en. 



In China the destruction of female infants is common ; " parents 

 sell their children to be slaves ; " in marriage " the parents of the girl 

 always demand for their child a price ; " and " forced marriages often 

 produce the most tragic results. ... A union prompted solely by love 

 would be a monstrous infraction of the duty of filial obedience, and a 

 predilection on the f)art of a female as heinous a crime as infidelity. 

 . . . Their maxim is, that, as the emperor should have the care of a 

 father for his people, a father should have the power of a sovereign 

 over his family." Meanwhile it is observable that this legally-unlim- 

 ited paternal power descending from militant times, and persisting 

 along with the militant type of social structure, has come to be quali- 

 fied in practice by sentiments which the industrial type fosters : in- 

 fanticide, reprobated by proclamation, is excused only on the plea of 

 poverty, joined with the need for rearing a male child ; and public 

 opinion puts checks on the actions of those who purchase children. 

 With that militant type of social structure which, during early wars. 



