218 SEX 



question, " But would the daughters not inherit 

 their father's as well as their mother's quali- 

 ties ? " we must answer that it is one of the 

 mysteries of inheritance that it is often sex- 

 limited. That is, it remains latent in one 

 sex, whether for lack of the appropriate 

 liberating stimulus in the environment, or 

 because inhibited by the constitution of the 

 organism. 



In the same way, if the theory of the 

 mother-age stands, we must regard woman as 

 becoming very early the organic repository 

 of other great capacities, complementary to 

 man's. It is very interesting, if true, that 

 women began domestication, agriculture, 

 medicine all of them what might be called 

 " nurtural " activities. It is certain that 

 woman was from the first organically more 

 moral than man in relation to offspring; it 

 is probable that she early developed a home- 

 instinct congruent with her nature. 



The matriarchate gave way because woman 

 made home-life too comfortable, because 

 population increased and game decreased, 

 because man became more domesticated, and 

 later on, less of a huntsman and correspond- 

 ingly more of a worker. Moreover, between 

 the tendency to masculine dictature always 

 renewed by war, and the preponderance of 

 the patriarchal order congruent with pas- 

 toralism, the position of the matriarchate 

 could never have been a very stable or secure 

 one. 



We are thus brought to the transition 

 period when the matriarchate has lost its 



