d in its nature and composition. Living
tribes such as the Fuegians and Australians, and the extinct
Tasmanians, represent very nearly the status of the horde--a sort of
social protoplasm. They wander in groups, incidentally through the
influence of temporary advantage or on account of a fitful social
instinct. Co-operation, mutual aid, and reciprocal mental action were
so faint that in many cases life was practically non-social.
Nevertheless, even these groups had aggregated, communicated, and had
language and other evidences of social heredity.

_The Family Is the Most Persistent of Social Origins_.--The relation of
parent and child was the most potent influence in establishing
coherency of the group, and next to it, though of later development,
was the relation of man and woman--that is, the sex relation. While
the family is a universal social unit, it appears in many different
forms in different tribes and, indeed, exhibits many changes in its
development in the same tribe. There is no probability that mankind
existed in a complete state of promiscuity in sex relations, yet these
relations varied in different tribes. Mating was always a habit of the
race and early became regulated by custom. The variety of forms of
mating leads us to think the early sex life of man was not of a
degraded nature. Granted that matrimony had not reached the high state
of spiritual life contemplated in modern ideals, there are instances of
monogamic marriage and pure, dignified rites in primitive peoples.
Polygamy and polyandry were of later development.

A study of family life within the historic period, especially of
Greeks, Romans, and Teutons, and possibly the Hebrews, {110} compared
with the family life of the Australian and some of the North American
Indian tribes, reveals great contrasts in the prevailing customs of
matrimony. All forms of marriage conceivable may be observed from rank
animalism to high spiritual union; of numerous ideals, customs, and
usages and ceremonies, as well as great confusion of purpose. It may
be assumed, therefore, that there was a time in the history of every
branch of the human race when family customs were indefinite and family
coherence was lacking. Also that society was in a rude state in which
the relations of individuals to each other and to the general social
group were not clearly defined. There are found to-day among the lower
races, in the Pacific islands, Africa, and South Ameri