MARITAL JEALOUSY 137 



abundant measure. Illustrations of this indifference 

 have been given in a previous chapter to show that 

 uncertainty of paternity cannot be the cause of the 

 reckoning of descent exclusively through the mother. 

 The special object of those that follow is to show that 

 the insistence on chastity is not a necessary conse- 

 quence of the change of reckoning. That alone does 

 not impose a higher standard of sexual virtue. It 

 is the transfer of potestas to the husband (a gradual 

 process commencing under motherright) which autho- 

 rises him either to keep his women to himself or 

 to dispose of them to other men at his own pleasure ; 

 and subject to this they are often free. ^}\z potestas 

 also is limited among many peoples by religious 

 motives. What we should consider violations of 

 chastity are commanded as religious duties ; and 

 neither the husband nor the woman herself has any 

 right to withhold her person from sexual intercourse 

 on special occasions or with special persons. 



We may first consider a few cases in which the 

 reckoning of kinship is undergoing transition or is 

 made through both parents. Of South African Bantu 

 the Herero are just passing from motherright to 

 fatherright. Before marriage sexual intercourse is 

 free. Yet some value is placed on virginity, and to 

 secure it children are betrothed in infancy, after which 

 on both sides chastity must be observed. The child 

 of an unmarried girl belongs to the begetter if he 

 choose to acknowledge it. In such a case it is treated 

 well but excluded from the inheritance. No compen- 

 sation is payable for the seduction of an unmarried 

 girl. Adultery on the part of a wife is the source of 

 quarrels. The seducer is liable to pay the husband 



