side, and it is now certain that this
custom has existed among many primitive races, while in others
children were named after the paternal side. The term _matriarchy_ is
given to denomination after the maternal side. MacLennan maintains the
existence of matriarchy in promiscuity, but this is inadmissible.
Maternity is self-evident, while paternity can only be proved
indirectly by the aid of reasoning. No doubt all nations appear to
have recognized the real part which the father takes in every
conception, and from this results the singular custom among certain
tribes, in which the husband retires to his couch and fasts during the
accouchement of his wife.

Westermark explains matriarchy in a simpler and more natural way, by
the intimate relations of the child to the mother. Children,
especially when they are still young, follow the mother when she
separates from the father. Matriarchy is quite natural in marriages of
short duration, with change of wives, and in polygamy; while, in
monogamous nations, it is _patriarchy_, or denomination after the
paternal line, which dominates.

Among nations where the denomination of uncles exists, and where the
married woman lives with her family till she has a child, matriarchy
results quite naturally from this fact. In Japanese families who have
only daughters, the husband of the eldest takes his wife's family
name. Among savages in general, the name has a great importance. When
rank and property are only inherited in the female line, the children
are always named after this line. We are thus concerned here with very
complex questions which have nothing to do with promiscuity.

Maine has proved that prostitution and promiscuity lead to sterility
and decadence. Among the few tribes in which polyandry is the rule,
especially in Thibet, several brothers generally have the same wife.
But they usually alternate, and never dwell together. In the fifteenth
century, in the Canary Islands, every woman had three husbands, each
of whom lived with her for a month, and the one who was to possess her
during the following month had to work both for her and for the other
two husbands. Polyandry has always originated in scarcity of women.

The jealousy of men, which has never ceased to exist, gives the
clearest proof of the impossibility of promiscuity. Polyandry is only
possible among a few feeble and degenerate races who ignore jealousy.
These tribes are diminishing and tend to disappear. The