MOTHERRIGHT 257 



ceded father-right and the reckoning of descent in the 

 modern civilised fashion through both parents. 



This past universality of motherright points to a 

 very early origin. It must have taken its rise in a 

 condition of society ruder than any of which we have 

 cognisance. Let us consider what social organisation 

 it implies. Kinship is a sociological term. It is not 

 synonymous with blood-relationship : it does not 

 express a physiological fact. Many savage peoples 

 are organised in totemic clans, each clan bearing 

 usually the name of an animal or plant often supposed 

 to be akin to the human members of the clan. Every 

 member of the clan recognises every other member as 

 of the kin. Inasmuch as these clans extend fre- 

 quently through whole tribes and even to distant 

 parts of a vast continent like North America or 

 Australia, it is practically impossible that the members 

 can be in a physiological sense blood-relations. Not- 

 withstanding this, every member of the totem-clan, 

 wherever he may be found, is entitled to all the 

 privileges and subject to all the disabilities incident to 

 his status. He is entitled to protection at the hands 

 of his fellow-clansmen. He is liable to be called on 

 to take part in the blood-feud of the clan, and to suffer 

 by an act of vengeance for a wrong committed by 

 some other member of the clan. Foremost among his 

 disabilities is the prohibition to marry or have sexual 

 relations with any woman within the kin. Conse- 

 quent y his children must all be children of women 

 belonging to a different kin from his own. 



Though kinship, however, is not equivalent to blood- 

 relationship in our sense of the term, it is founded on 

 the idea of common blood which all within the kin 



