sympathy between
fathers and children, as well as between members of the same group
(quite apart from forays and fighting), must have tended to bring about
a change in the laws of descent.

The late Major J.W. Powell has already described the transition from
matria potestas to patria potestas among the Pueblo peoples. He put it
down to economic conditions, which lead the groups to scatter, each
under the headship of a male, who is also the husband; this naturally
resulted in a weakening of the influence of the mother's brother. It is,
however, less clear that it would bring about the decay of the power of
the mother herself, which in Australian tribes, at any rate, seems to be
independent of the support she obtains from her male relatives.

In Australia, as we have seen, the change from matria to patria potestas
had but little influence in bringing about a change in the rule of
descent. Here, too, the change in the rule of descent may be put down in
the main to economic causes also in a broad sense. Dumping was not in
those days a question of practical politics; the problem was to prevent
the neighbours from pursuing the policy of the free and open port. The
necessity of protecting tribal and group property in land and game would
naturally tend to bind men closer and closer, in proportion as the
pressure from without became greater. It is perhaps hardly accidental
that the main area of male descent is that which has also developed the
Intichiuma ceremonies.

If Prof. Gregory's view[36] that the occupation of Victoria by the
natives dates back no more than 300 years is correct, we may perhaps see
in the migration one cause of the rise of patriliny. Anything which
tended to shake the influence of the mother's kin would increase the
father's power; and the need of protecting newly established groups
from the incursions of their neighbours would be more urgent than in
older districts. As we have seen, the first mentioned cause has
elsewhere had little direct effect; but it may well have played a larger
part under the novel conditions of migration and occupation of fresh
territory.

In South Queensland the fractionation of tribes seems to have gone
further than elsewhere, unless we suppose that we have here an area,
where, as in California, pressure from without has crowded together the
remnants of many tribes. Although it is not obvious how the
multiplication of distinct tribes has favoured patrilineal descent, we
may,