About Woman_, and my belief in the favourable influence
of mother-descent on the status of women, has been much questioned. I
have been told that I "had quite deliberately gone back to our
uncivilised ancestors to 'fish up' the precedent of the matriarchate;"
that I "had allowed my prejudices to dictate my choice of material,
and had thus brought forward examples explanatory of my own opinions;"
that I "had fastened eagerly on these, without inquiring too carefully
about other facts having a contrary tendency." I was reminded of what
I well knew, that the matriarchate and promiscuity with which it is
usually connected were not universally accepted by anthropologists;
the tendency to-day being to discredit both as being among the early
phases of society. It was suggested that I "had unprofitably spent my
time on the historical section of my book, and had built up my theory
on a curiously uncertain foundation;" that I "had relied too much on
the certain working of mother-right, and had been by no means clear in
showing how, from such a position of power, women had sunk into
subservience to patriarchal rule." In fact, it has seemed to be the
opinion of my critics that I had allowed what I "would have liked to
have happened to affect my account of what did happen in the infancy
of man's social life."

Now, I want to say quite frankly, that I feel much of this criticism
is just. The inquiry on the mother-age civilisation was only one small
section of my book on Woman. I realise that very much was hurried
over. There is on this subject of the origin of the family a
literature so extensive, and such a variety of opinions, that the
work of the student is far from easy. The whole question is too
extensive to allow anything like adequate treatment within the space
of a brief, and necessarily insufficient, summary. My earlier
investigation may well be objected to as not being in certain points
supported by sufficient proofs. I know this. It is not easy to
condense the marriage customs and social habits of many different
peoples into a few dozen pages. Of course, I selected my examples. But
this I may say; I chose those which had brought me to accept
mother-right. I was driven to this belief by my own study and reading
long before the time of writing my book. What I really tried to do was
to present to others the facts that had convinced me. But my stacks of
unused notes, collected for my own pleasure during many years of work,
ar