PATERNAL REGULATION. 425 



that of men in relation to industrial government, notwith 

 standing men s greater strength. 



775. These exceptional instances serve but to remind us 

 that almost universally men, having, by gifts of nature, the 

 mastery, use that mastery in every way dictating to all 

 members of the family-group in respect of their occupations 

 as in other respects. For we may safely assume that where 

 the subordination of women is unlimited, the subordination 

 of children is also unlimited ; and that along with the father s 

 despotic regulation of them in all else, there goes despotic 

 regulation of their labours. Indeed, we see here in its sim 

 plest form the general truth that political rule, ecclesiastical 

 rule, and industrial rule, are at the outset one; since the male 

 head of the family enacts general laws of conduct for its 

 members, exercises that authority which belongs to him as 

 representative and priest of the deceased ancestor or house 

 hold deity, and is the irresponsible director of daily work. 



Naturally, where little or no political organization has 

 arisen, there exists nothing to put a check on the father s 

 power nothing save the ability of his children to resist or 

 to escape. This check seems operative in families of Be 

 douins, among whom the sentiment of filial subordination is 

 small, and among whom a son can easily set up a tent for him 

 self. Hence, says Burckhardt, &quot; the daily quarrels between 

 parents and children in the desert constitute the worst fea 

 ture of the Bedouin character.&quot; But recognizing such ex 

 ceptional cases, where, as also among some North American 

 tribes, a wild predatory life conflicts with the maintenance of 

 domestic government, we may say that generally among 

 early pastoral and agricultural peoples, detached family- 

 groups are subject to unlimited paternal rule. By his in 

 tended sacrifice, Abraham implied the possession of the life- 

 and-death power; and by Jephtha that power was exercised. 

 A regime of this kind, established during the ages of nomadic 

 life and of scattered agricultural clusters, survives when so- 



