CHAPTER VI 



MARITAL JEALOUSY 



Continence not a savage virtue. Female chastity a slow 

 growth from the limitations imposed by the masculine 

 sense of ownership upon the gratification of the sexual 

 instincts. In the lower culture jealousy operates only 

 feebly or within limits. Examination of cases among 

 matrilineal peoples. Survival of matrilineal freedom into 

 fatherright. Peoples in a state of transition or where 

 kinship is reckoned through parents : Eskimo. Patri- 

 lineal peoples. Polyandry : the Todas and other peoples 

 of India and the neighbouring countries. Sexual morality. 

 Religious and other ritual observances. Wide distribu- 

 tion of practices implying defective jealousy. General 

 indifference to the actual paternity of a child. Value of 

 children. Fatherright fosters indifference to paternity. 



THE position we have now reached is this : While 

 motherright originates in the consciousness of blood- 

 relationship, fatherright on the contrary is due to 

 social and economic causes. It is an artificial system 

 of the reckoning of kinship ; it is formed by analogy 

 with the earlier system of motherright, and has in its 

 origin at all events nothing whatever do with the 

 consciousness of blood-relationship. This conclusion 

 will be strengthened by a further consideration of the 

 sexual relations of peoples in the lower culture. 



Savage and barbarous peoples are possessed of 

 many virtues, in some of which they are often justly 

 cited as examples to persons in a higher civilisation, 



101 



