MARRIAGE 67 



times even against the father; her brother or the 

 nearest male relative is their protector, master, and 

 guardian. Relationship through the father is in 

 some extreme cases not recognized at all, marriage 

 being permissible between children of the same 

 father if they are not of the same mother. The best- 

 known example of such a union between half-brother 

 and half-sister is that of Abraham and Sarah. 



There sometimes occurs a transition stage between 

 matriarchate and patriarchate, where the woman goes 

 to live in the man's family or tribe, but the children 

 take her name. Tribes are also found having both 

 phases side by side. Should the man live with the 

 wife's family, descent is reckoned through the female 

 line; but if the man takes the woman to his hut, it is 

 counted through the male line. 



Before coming to the discussion of the patriarchate, 

 we must mention group or tribal marriage, which in 

 some respects may be looked upon as an intermediary 

 stage. It has been asserted that it once prevailed 

 generally; but this now finds little acceptance. In 

 group marriage, the man marries a woman and all her 

 sisters, while she is married at the same time to all 

 his brothers. Among the Central Australian natives 

 the tribe is divided into four groups : " There exists 

 for any given group of men a definite group of women 

 with whom they may marry. ... A man may 

 have one or more women assigned to him as his wives; 

 ... he will also have others to whom he has access 

 only under certain conditions. . . ." Similarly 

 stands the relation of the women to the men. There 

 are other variations of group marriage which we need 

 not discuss in detail, 



