THE BEGINNINGS OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 137 



manent bond by the children, who become an object 

 of common interest to both parents. Among savages 

 marriages are readily dissolved if there are no chil- 

 dren, but after the birth of children the dissolution of 

 marriages is rare. The child with its long period of 

 infancy was really the cause of the permanency of 

 the human family. The long period of helpless in- 

 fancy of the human babe is thus not a weakness, as 

 it seems at first to be, but has been the source of the 

 greatest strength, since it has developed the human 

 family, which was the first step in social evolution. 



The Conditions of the Primitive Family 



All evidence points to the conclusion that these 

 primitive families lived in a state of constant war- 

 fare. We sometimes like to think of the conditions 

 of the early family as a sort of ideal from which 

 modern civilization has departed widely for the 

 worse. Some have tried to believe that after man 

 had made himself master of the animal world there 

 ensued a period of peace before fraternal warfare 

 began, and the primitive family is represented to us 

 as a simple loving relation between parents and chil- 

 dren, without the mutual hostilities that have arisen 

 later. But for such a conclusion there is not a shred 

 of evidence. On the contrary, all evidence tells us 

 that from the beginning till to-day human history 

 has been one of continual warfare. It is difficult for 

 us to-day to realize the conditions of unremitting 

 hostility that must have existed between the families 

 of early peoples. But such a condition existed and 

 is still found among modern savages. "Warfare is 

 the normal condition of life among most savage 

 tribes; they frequently have no word for ''friend- 



