140 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



there was ever a time wlien all members were equal is 

 uncertain and unimportant, for the equality did not 

 remain. Some members inevitably gained suprem- 

 acy. Even in the family relations of the most prim- 

 itive savages we find a variety of methods of indi- 

 vidual subordination. Sometimes the mother be- 

 comes supreme, and her will dominates the family, 

 this being the only law. But as a rule it is the father 

 who is looked upon as the head of the family, and all 

 members yield to him. Under such conditions filial 

 reverence for the father is sometimes developed to an 

 extraordinary extent, as was the case among the 

 ancient Romans or the modern Chinese. In other 

 great races of man the head of the family was com- 

 monly he who had strength to obtain and hold his 

 position. So long as the father possessed a master- 

 ful mind he remained its head, but as soon as an- 

 other acquired greater influence, the family head was 

 changed. From this it followed that the eldest son, 

 upon his marriage, was usually looked upon as the 

 real head of the family, instead of the aged father. 

 The important principle in such races was that the 

 head of the family could change with circumstances, 

 and this principle underlies the whole subsequent 

 history of the development of the Aryan race, having 

 had, as we shall see, a most extraordinary influence 

 on the history of the development of civilization. In 

 families where the head of the family was simply the 

 strongest, filial reverence became slight and was 

 sometimes entirely wanting. In these races the older 

 members of the family were frequently killed when 

 they were no longer useful. Daughters were not 

 desired, and female infants were exposed to the 

 weather for the purpose of getting rid of them. 



