246 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



to operate in an extreme case like that of the Sia. 

 Having in mind the customs of other peoples passed 

 in review we may well doubt that it has caused all the 

 promiscuity (for it almost amounts to that) which has 

 been described as prevalent in that tribe. But it does 

 assuredly tend to produce disregard of the exact 

 paternity of a child born to the tribe. For the only 

 way in which a society with its organisation its tra- 

 ditions and its corporate life can continue to exist is 

 by the production of offspring. Children therefore 

 have their importance independent of the assistance 

 they may be expected to render in the provision of 

 food or in warlike efficiency. Where they are rare the 

 desire for them outweighs a nice consideration of the 

 manner in which they are obtained. 



What is true of the larger community of the tribe is 

 true also of the smaller community of the family. 

 Children are its supreme necessity. It matters com- 

 paratively little whether they are legitimate, or even 

 whether they have the family blood in their veins. 

 Carelessness on this point arising under motherright is 

 in no way diminished nay, it may become actually 

 intensified with the change to agnatic descent. That 

 change is often accompanied or followed by increased 

 accumulation of property and by a religious develop- 

 ment which concentrates the cult of the dead upon the 

 family manes. When this happens the holder of the 

 property as the head of the family becomes especially 

 charged with the religious duties upon which his own 

 welfare and that of the entire family depend. It is 

 incumbent upon him to have an heir upon whom shall 

 devolve his property and the religious obligations 

 bound up with it. The more children a father has 



