onflicting accounts are given
by different authorities, and even by the same writer.

[3] Westermarck, "The Position of Women in Early
Civilisations," _Sociological Papers_, 1904.

[4] For instance, Maine (_Early Law and Custom_), in speaking
of tribes who still trace their descent from a single
ancestress, says, "The outlines" (_i. e._ of the maternal
family) "may still be marked out, _if it be worth any one's
while to trace it_."

I wish it to be understood that mother-right does not necessarily
imply mother-rule. This system may even be combined with the
patriarchal authority of the male. The unfortunate use of the term
_Matriarchate_ has led to much confusion. My own knowledge and study
of primitive customs and ancient civilisations have made it plain to
me that there has been a constant rise and fall of male and female
dominance, but, I believe, that, on the whole, the superiority of
women has been more frequent and more successful than that of men.

It is this that I shall attempt to prove.

The theory of mother-right has been subjected to so much criticism
that a re-examination of the position is very necessary. To show its
prevalence, to establish some leading points in its history, to make
out its connection with the patriarchal family, and to trace the
transition by which one system passed into the other, appear to me to
be matters primarily important. The limited compass of this little
book will prevent my substantiating my own views as I should wish,
with a full and systematic survey of all authentic accounts of the
peoples among whom mother-descent may be studied. I have considered,
however, that I could summarise the position in a comprehensive
picture, that will, I hope, suggest a point of view that seems to me
to have been very generally neglected.

It is necessary to enter into such an inquiry with caution; the
difficulties before me are very great. Nothing would be easier than
from the mass of material available to pile up facts in furnishing a
picture of the high status of women among many tribes under the
favourable influence of mother-descent, that would unnerve any
upholders of the patriarchal view of the subordination of women. It is
just possible, on the other hand, to interpret these facts from a
fixed point of thought of the father's authority as the one support of
the family, and then to argue that, in spite of the mother's control
over her children and over