RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 99 



It is submitted then that while motherright is 

 founded on blood, fatherright on the other hand had 

 its origin in quite different considerations. Kindred 

 with the father is first and foremost juridical a social 

 convention. This is rendered clear by the customs of 

 numerous peoples in transition between motherright 

 and fatherright. Such are those of the Malays of the 

 Padang Highlands where the residence of the mother, 

 whether with her own or her husband's suku. t decides the 

 question ; of the Murray Islanders where the children 

 have their choice between their father's or mother's clan ; 

 of many of the Dravidian tribes of India where the 

 reckoning has been changed by contact with Brah- 

 manism ; of the Chukchi where the future kin of the 

 pair and consequently of their children is now a 

 matter of arrangement at the time of marriage. Still 

 more evident is it in the effect that so commonly 

 follows the payment of the bride-price. It would be 

 easy to multiply the number of instances I have cited, 

 in which the payment of the bride-price not merely 

 ensures to the bridegroom the custody of his wife 

 and children, but transfers the children to his stock. 

 The artificial character of the kinship thus created is 

 thrown into strong relief where two kinds of marriage 

 like those \yyjujur and ambelanak coexist, or where the 

 rights of the wife's kin are compromised for one or 

 more children of the marriage. * On the other hand, 



1 Among the Negro tribes of West Africa even the wife herself 

 sometimes sells her rights in the children to her husband for money. 

 We have learned in the last chapter that so absolute is the power 

 of the head of the family that he can pawn or even sell the children. 

 Among matrilineal peoples this power is generally vested in the 

 maternal uncle, but occasionally at least in the wife herself. The 

 Ewhe are a raatrilineal people. The father's power over his children 



