CHAPTER V 



RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 



The stages through which conjugal relations have passed 

 are not uniform but dependent on environment and other 

 influences. The stages to be reviewed therefore are not 

 necessarily consecutive. Frailty of the conjugal bond. 

 The entertainment of temporary husbands at the wife's 

 home. Relations beginning with secret visits by the 

 lover tend to become open and permanent. Cupid and 

 Psyche. Secret relations between husband and wife. 

 Open visits by husband. Polygamous visiting husbands. 

 Marriages in which the husband goes to reside per- 

 manently with his wife. Commutation of the husband's 

 permanent residence in his wife's family. Husband's 

 probation as a relic of an earlier custom of visiting. 

 Effect of payment of bride-price. Husband's permanent 

 residence in his wife's family : its tendency to patrilineal 

 reckoning. Evolution of fatherright among various 

 peoples of the Old and New Worlds. Summary : general 

 course of the evolution of conjugal relations, and reasons 

 for the inevitable decay and supersession of motherright. 

 The reckoning of kinship through the father is not 

 founded on blood, but is a social convention. 



OUR general consideration of the social organisation 

 implied by motherright has disclosed that the children 

 are not recognised as belonging to the kin of the 

 father, that their position in the community into which 

 they are born does not depend upon him, consequently 

 that he has little control over them and takes little 



II I A 



