94 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



and consent of her kin. Cohabitation must then of 

 necessity be disclosed at or before pregnancy. Though 

 it may ceremonially be still considered secret it is as 

 a fact known in the wife's family and accepted by 

 them ; and in the earlier stages its acceptance is often 

 followed by the husband's prolonged residence with 

 them. Where the matrilineal clan is in full force, or 

 where the family has been formed within the larger 

 organisation of the clan but has not yet succeeded in 

 supplanting it for effective social government, the 

 husband remains subordinate to the wife's male kins- 

 men, her uncles or her brothers. But in the process 

 of development the clan has in many places been 

 broken up into families the male members of which 

 reside permanently in their wives' homes. This process 

 is often accelerated by circumstances, as in the forests 

 of Central Brazil. It may result, as it does there, in 

 the husband's ultimately becoming the head of the 

 household. In such cases the sons, unless they dwell 

 in a bachelors' house in the village, sometimes pass to 

 their uncle's care at an early age, thus quitting the 

 parental roof even before the occasion arises for seek- 

 ing mates for themselves. 



In desert countries, however, where food is scarce 

 population cannot cluster together in villages, nor can 

 children easily pass to another household. Small 

 groups are dispersed hither and thither in the search 

 for subsistence. In some instances the inhabitants of 

 these waste places are degraded peoples driven by 

 invaders from kindlier soil and climate. But whatever 

 may be the cause of dispersal its tendency would be to 

 break down the earlier social organisation. A man 

 would be unwilling to wander permanently without 



