262 MATERIAL PROGRESS 



ownership as that a hive-bee should maintain 

 a store of honey of its own. Man was of account 

 only as a member of a society, and it was out of the 

 question that he should hold anything in antagon- 

 ism to his fellows. At the present day in a typical 

 Hindu family there is no separate ownership : its 

 members remit their earnings to the head of the 

 family, and receive at his hands their fitting main- 

 tenance. There are still villages in India which 

 periodically " pool " their fields and redistribute 

 them by lot. 



It seems probable that private ownership 

 in women, land, or other things arose out of 

 predatory conquest. Success in war could 

 hardly be expected unless the fighting men were 

 encouraged by the expectation of retaining for 

 themselves what they had won by their valour ; 

 and it is plausibly conjectured that marriage, 

 the exclusive possession of a woman by a man, 

 has its origin in the forcible capture of alien 

 women. This supposition would explain two 

 curious survivals the simulation of ill-temper 

 by the bride and her relatives, which is a common 

 feature of marriage ceremonies, and the very 

 general prejudice against taking a wife out of the 

 bridegroom's own clan. It may easily be believed 

 that the mastership of one man was less disagree- 

 able to women than the promiscuous intimacy 

 of the herd, and that they accordingly favoured 

 their own enslavement. Warriors who were per- 

 mitted to appropriate their plunder would, if 

 victorious, become owners of slaves and cattle ; 

 and, if the vanquished tribe was driven off its 

 land, they might also be rewarded by the grant 

 of allotments, which would be their own, exclus- 

 ively, and free of all demands for the benefit of 

 their fellows. War is now condemned by many as 

 one of the most destructive of evils : it may be 



