ULTIMOGENITURE, the custom by which the youngest son inherits the homestead, is known in English law as Borough English. In England it obtained in parts from Gloucester to Cambridgeshire. Under the name of Mainete and Jungerrecht it was known in northern France and northern Germany. In Assam it is found among the matrilineal Garos who possess the dual organipation and speak a Tibeto-Chinese language, among the matrilineal Khasias who speak an Austric language, among patrilineal Lusheis, Meitheis, Nagas and Kachins, speakers of Tibeto-Chinese languages. Cases are known in Africa.
This custom has been regarded as derived from the jus primae noctis, the youngest son being of undoubted paternity. This view has been successfully traversed by Blackstone, Westermarck and Frazer. It has been ascribed among settled peoples, such as Nagas and Meitheis, to the custom of making provision for the elder sons as they marry and set up house independently. The rule
requiring elders to marry before juniors is found among com munities which do not now practise ultimogeniture. Among people like the Lusheis, who practise shifting cultivation, it is due to the custom by which the sons of chiefs, on marrying, swarmed off to found new villages. The view that it is connected with domestic worship—proffered by Elton and accepted by Gounne is supported by the Khasi evidence, where the youngest daughter "inherits the religion"—in organic association with the homestead. With the Garos it is inseparably connected with the general sys tem of marriage.
See Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. ii.; 0. Elton, Origins of English History, ist ed. (1888) ; E. Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, 5th ed.; Sir J. Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament (1918).