The Maternal Family.-- The original type of family in the human species seems to have been of the type which anthropologists and sociologists call "znaternall'; that is, the mother is the centre of the family, the children take her name, and if there is property or hereditary titles they pass along the female line, not along the male line. There are various degrees of this maternal family. As a metronymic (mother-name) system there is much evidence to show that once it was universal. Bachofen and McLennan thought that the• reason for this was the condition of original promiscuity which we have just discussed. But it is found among many peoples with a highly and comparatively stable family life, as, for example, among many of the American Indians. The causes of this system of naming and of reckoning relationship seems to have been (1) that in primitive society the physiological con nection between father and child was not known, and hence it was impossible to trace blood relationship along the male line; (2) that in primitive conditions the child was more habitually attached to the mother and the mother's kin than to the father, as on account of hunting and war the latter was a relatively unstable element in the family. This primitive form of tracing blood relationship persisted among many peoples down to recent times. Even among the European peoples in the earliest historic period we sometimes find survivals of the system.
Among well-developed maternal peoples, chil dren not only bear the name of the mother's' kin ship group or clun, but the husband and rather, while usually belonging to another clan, lives with his wife and his wife's people. Sometimes the mother's brothers exercise a certain degree of authority over the children; but there is little evidence to warrant us in believing Bachofen's contention that all of this points to a primitive state in which women were dominant socially and politically. Among many maternal peoples, however, women have a higher social and political status than they came to have under the patriarchal system (q.v.). The maternal system, in other words, was not a true ((matriarchate' The Historical Development of the Family.— By the time we reach the period of written records among European and Asiatic peoples the maternal form of the family had been left behind and the civilized peoples of Europe and Asia had all developed in varying degrees the paternal family, in which names, property and titles pass along the male line and the father is the head of the household. The main causes of this transition to the paternal system seem to have been wife capture in war, wife purchase and the pastoral system of in dustry. (See article on PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM). Chinese, Hindus, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans and even the barbarous Teutonic tribes had all, indeed, early in antiquity developed the extreme type of the paternal family which we call We have space to notice only the historical development of the family among those ancient peoples whose civilization has formed the basis of our own, namely, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans and the Teu tonic tribes.
Family Life of the Ancient Hebrews.— Hebrew family life was of the patriarchal type as far back as we have any certain knowledge, though Robertson Smith thinks that there are indications of a pre-existing maternal family. The descriptions in the Old Testament are, indeed, perfect pictures of the patriarchal type of family life. Polygamy (see article on MAR RIAGE, HISTORY OF) was practised by the patri archs, but monogamy was the prevalent form of family life among the masses of the people, and after the Captivity was practically the only form. Women, especially those who were wives and mothers, held a relatively high posi tion in the Hebrew family and society, though they had no legal rights. Children were re garded as blessings and were greatly desired on account of the patriarchal system. No exposure of children was apparently practised by the ancient Hebrews. The family was practically among them a religious organization, though they left ancestor worship behind before they appear in history. From the Hebrew family life was derived practically all of the ethical and religious phraseology of ancient Judaism. It is through the ethical and religious ideas de rived from their family life that the ancient Hebrews have particularly affected the family in modern civilization. The relative purity and integrity of the Hebrew family, however, was not maintained after contact with Greco-Roman civilization. In New Testament times divorce, which originally had been very rare among the Hebrews and granted only for adultery and barreness, became very common.
Greco-Roman Family Life.—As among the Hebrews the family among the earliest Greco-Romans was practically a religious institution, designed to maintain the wor ship of ancestors. ' The family was of the ex treme patriarchal type, the head of the family or patriarch, as the link between the living and the dead, was considered almost divine. His power over the patriarchal group was accord ingly in theory absolute, though in practice it was limited by many religious scruples. Mar riage was regarded as a religious bond, and among the early Romans was strictly of the monogamic type, though polygamy is recorded occasionally among the Greeks. As the mar riage bond was religious it was practically in dissoluble and divorce was very rare, especially among the early Romans. Among the Romans the patriarchal family line was kept up by resort to the practice of adoption. Although women had no legal rights, the position of wife and mother, especially among the early Ro mans, was singularly high and respected. Among the Greeks, however, the position of women, probably owing to Oriental influences, was less favorable, and the respectable Athenian wife and mother was supposed to remain se cluded in her household.