ly
combines into a history of the family a number of hypotheses, he not
only demands proofs from Lubbock and Morgan for every one of their
propositions, but insists on proofs of such indisputable validity as is
solely recognized in a Scotch court. And this is done by the same man
who unhesitatingly concludes that the following people practiced
polyandry: The Germans, on account of the intimate relation between
uncle and nephew (mother's brother and sister's son); the Britons,
because Cesar reports that the Britons have ten to twelve women in
common; barbarians, because all other reports of the old writers on
community of women are misinterpreted by him! One is reminded of a
prosecuting attorney who takes all possible liberty in making up his
case, but who demands the most formal and legally valid proof for every
word of the lawyer for the defense.

He asserts that communal marriage is purely the outgrowth of
imagination, and in so doing falls far behind Bachofen. He represents
Morgan's systems of affinity as mere codes of conventional politeness,
proven by the fact that Indians address also strangers, white people, as
brother or father. This is like asserting that the terms father, mother,
brother, sister are simply meaningless forms of address, because
Catholic priests and abbesses are also addressed as father and mother,
and monks and nuns, or even free-masons and members of English
professional clubs in solemn session, as brother and sister. In short,
McLennan's defense was extremely weak.

One point still remained that had not been attacked. The contrast of
exogamous and endogamous tribes, on which his whole system was founded,
was not only left unchallenged, but was even generally regarded as the
pivotal point of the entire history of the family. It was admitted that
McLennan's attempt to explain this contrast was insufficient and in
contradiction with the facts enumerated by himself. But the contrast
itself, the existence of two diametrically opposed forms of independent
and absolute groups, one of them marrying the women of its own group,
the other strictly forbidding this habit, was considered irrefutable
gospel. Compare e. g. Giraud-Teulon's "Origines de la famille" (1874)
and even Lubbock's "Origin of Civilization" (4th edition, 1882).

At this point Morgan's main work, "Ancient Society" (1877), inserts its
lever. It is this work on which the present volume is based. Here we
find clearly demonstrated what w