NATURE 



401 



THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1875 



LUBBOCK'S "ORIGIN OF CIVILISATION" 

 The Origin o/ Civilisation, and the Pritnitive Condition 

 of Man : Mental and Social Condition of Savages. 

 By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., &c. Third 

 Edition. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co.) 



THE third edition of Sir John Lubbock's well-known 

 book has followed so close upon the second, that 

 the author, busy man as he is, might have been excused 

 had he given us a mere reprint ; but he has included in 

 it additional matter which adds very considerably to its 

 value. Nearly every chapter has been enlarged, and a 

 chapter on the Development of Relationships has been 

 added, which appears to us to be at least as good and 

 useful a bit of work as Sir John Lubbock has hitherto 

 done. To show the changes which have been made at 

 points throughout the book is out of our power, nor does 

 this seem to be necessary, as the changes do not, we think, 

 in any case affect his previous conclusions otherwise than 

 by adding to the evidence on which they rest. The 

 new chapter is what calls for notice, and to it this notice 

 shall for the most part be confined. The facts with which 

 he deals in this chapter have been taken from the volu- 

 minous work of the American author, Mr. Morgan ; but 

 Sir John Lubbock, putting aside Mr. Morgan's theorising, 

 has submitted a view of them of his own. This, in the 

 main, and so far as it goes, we think, he has made out. 



The facts collected by Mr. Morgan (though he had the 

 assistance of the United States Government, the collec- 

 tion must have cost him an infinity of trouble) show the 

 existence, widespread, among the lower races of mankind, 

 of systems of relationships strangely different from that 

 which exists in Europe, transmitted without material 

 change from the Aryan nations from whom we claim 

 descent. In these systems (to describe them, so far as 

 can be done, by the incide nts which are common to the 

 greatest number of them) all the brothers of a family are 

 each called father, and regarded as a father, by the 

 children of the whole brotherhood ; and all the sisters of a 

 family are each called .mother, and regarded as a mother, 

 by the children of the whol e sisterhood ; while the chil- 

 dren of brothers regard each other, and also the children 

 of sisters of their respective mothers, as brothers and 

 sisters, and are acknowledged as children equally by their 

 true father and his brothers and their true mother and 

 her sisters. This holds good of all putative brothers and 

 sisters, and accordingly a man regards the children of a 

 male cousin through his father's brother or his mother's 

 sister as his children, and is by them called father ; he 

 regards the grandchildren through a male of such a 

 cousin as his grandchildren, and is by them called grand- 

 father. Similarly a woman regards the children of a 

 female cousin through her father's brother or her mother's 

 sister as her children, and is by them called mother ; and 

 the grandchildren through a female of such a cousin are 

 her grandchildren, and call her grandmother. All the 

 brothers of a grandfather are grandfathers, and all the 

 sisters of a grandmotherare grandmothers. In nearly all the 

 cases in which this curious nomenclature^and it is much 

 more than mere nomenclature, though, strictly speaking. 

 Vol. xr. — No. 2S3 



it is not a description of relations/tips — is in use, a special 

 term is applied to a mother's brother by her children, 

 and a special term applied to children by their mother's 

 brother. These terms are inadequately represented 

 by our words uncle and nephew, for they denote what 

 the terms father and son do not in these cases usually 

 involve — relationship being counted through females 

 only — a recognised blood-relationship, which carries to 

 the uncle the right and duty of exercising on behalf of 

 his nephew such care and supervision as in more advanced 

 communities are exercised by a father, and gives the 

 nephew, on the other hand, the right of succession to his 

 uncle's property. In cases not quite so numerous a 

 special term is applied also to a father's sister, who then 

 in turn calls her brother's children by the term applied by 

 the brother to her children ; she is an aunt, and her 

 brother's son is her nephew. In a still more limited 

 number of systems the terms devised for real brother and 

 sister and their children are applied to all putative brothers 

 and sisters and their children. Where these special terms 

 are all in use, brother's and sister's children are in 

 some cases considered brothers and sisters ; and 

 then the rules applicable to all putative brothers and 

 sisters and their offspring being applied, the cousins 

 are regarded as the fathers, mothers, or uncles, aunts 

 of each other's children, according as the relation- 

 ship arises through two male cousins, two female 

 cousins, or a male and female cousin. In more nume- 

 rous cases, the children of a brother and sister, or of a 

 putative brother and sister, are distinguished by a special 

 term, i.e., they are called cousins. In a considerable 

 number of these, however, a cousin's son is addressed as 

 if he were the son of a brother or sister — that is, either as 

 son or nephew ; and, in nearly all, a cousin's son's son is, 

 as if he were a brother's son's son, termed a grandson. A 

 very few of the systems of relationship, particulars of 

 which have been collected by Mr. Morgan, fall below the 

 description given above ; in these a mother's brother is 

 considered as a father, a father's sister as a mother, and 

 terms for cousinry are unknown. There are others, the 

 number of which is considerable, which are of a higher 

 kind, which are nearer, that is, by one or more steps to 

 our own system of relationship — applying, e.g., special 

 terms as little father or stepfather to a father's brother, 

 special terms as little mother or stepmother to a mother's 

 sister, and special terms to the relationship of the children 

 of two brothers or two sisters. All the systems which have 

 been brought under notice, however, in whatever respects 

 they differ, agree in considering a grandfather's brother 

 to be a grandfather, a grandfather's sister to be a grand- 

 mother, and, on the other hand, a grandson of a cousin 

 — whether called cousin, step-brother, or brother — to be 

 a grandson. 



In these points of agreement is found the expla- 

 nation of the relation between the various systems. 

 Sir John Lubbock's conclusion that these, in the 

 higher systems, are relics of previous lower stages 

 of development, which it has perhaps not been 

 thought worth while to get rid of, appears to be irre- 

 sistible. They suggest a time in the history of each 

 system, be it now what it may, w^hen all brothers were 

 equally the fathers of each other's children, when all 

 cousins, even the children of brother and sister, were 



