214 SEX 



ROLE OF MEN AND WOMEN IN EVOLUTION. 

 Man's work and woman's work form the 

 warp and woof of civilisation, and the inter- 

 twining is so intricate that the discrimination 

 of contributions to any particular pattern is 

 extremely difficult. We cannot do more than 

 attempt to illustrate the respective roles of 

 man and woman in evolution. We shall refer 

 to the mother-age and the patriarchate of old, 

 and the industrial revolution still of but 

 yesterday. The important general idea to be 

 borne in mind is that our present social state 

 is like a countryside with a complex geological 

 structure, with outcrops of strata of very 

 diverse ages. Barbarism is not dead; the 

 mother age still lingers ; the patriarchate is 

 in great force ; in short, in spite of our rapid 

 social evolution there are abundant survivals 

 in culture. 



THE MOTHER- AGE. " Prehistoric history " 

 is hazardous, but there is a good case to be 

 made out for the reality of a primitive 

 " mother-age." This has been reconstructed 

 from fossils found in the folk-lore of agriculture 

 and housewifery, in old customs, ceremonies, 

 festivals, dances, games, and songs ; in myths 

 and fairy-tales and age -worn words. 



Prof. Karl Pearson finds in the study of 

 witchcraft some of the fossils that point back 

 to the matriarchate. In the older traditions 

 " the witch resumes her old position as the 

 wise woman, the medicine woman, the leader 

 of the people, the priestess." " We have 

 accordingly to look upon the witch as essen- 

 tially the degraded form of the old priestess, 



