CHAPTER VI

FROM THE GROUP TO THE TRIBE

Resemblance of semi-brutal group, at this stage, to actual savage tribe--Resemblance merely superficial--In this hypothetical semi-brutal group paternal incest survives--Causes of its decline and extinction--The sire’s widows of the group--Arrival of outside suitors for them--Brothers of wives of the group--New comers barred from marital rights over their daughters--Jealousy of their wives intervenes--Value of sisters to be bartered for sisters of another group discovered--Consequent resistance to incest of group sire--Natural selection favours groups where resistance is successful--Cousinage recognised in practice--Intermarrying sets of cousins become phratries--Exceptional cases of permitted incest in chiefs and kings--No known trace of avoidance between father and daughter--Progress had rendered such law superfluous