TRANSITION FROM TRIBAL SOCIETY 291 



may have paid rent in produce or rendered the proprie- 

 tary group various services. "In this differentiation of 

 the population occupying land held by a proprietary kin- 

 dred we probably see the beginnings of that sharper di- 

 vision which at a later time is presented within the man- 

 orial community. The groups of non-kindred, inferiors, 

 equal among themselves, were probably the beginnings of 

 the class afterward known as villain tenants. And that 

 democratic equality which many students of economic 

 history a generation ago attributed to the 'village com- 

 munity' probably never existed except within these or- 

 ganizations of non-kinsmen." 28 



In these several ways, through tribal feudalism in 

 which the bond of allegiance and faithfulness was sub- 

 stituted for that of simple blood relation, as well as 

 through the custom of admitting to certain privileges of 

 the five generation kindred a group of dependents who 

 occupied the proprietary domain, the old structure of 

 ethnic society was broken down and a new basis of rela- 

 tions was appearing. Now the supreme power which is 

 vested in the patriarch of the group, faced new problems 

 of organization forced upon it by the contact of a ruling 

 and a subject population. The old usages were found in- 

 effectual in dealing with the complex relations which had 

 arisen. Unattached to the tribes with which they had 

 cast their fortunes, but acquiring wealth and power, the 

 miscellaneous elements living on the tribal domain de- 

 manded juristic and political rights. 29 Commercial 

 rights were first granted with but little hestitation. But 



28/bft/., p. 482; and Seebohm, F. The Tribal System in Wales, and Tri- 

 bal Custom in Anc/lo-Saxon Law; Seebohm, II. E. The Structure of Greek 

 Tribal Society; and The Venedotian Code, Ancient Laws and Institutes of 

 Wales. 



39 Giddings, Principles, pp. 314-331. 



