Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/787

 RELATION OF SEX TO PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONTROL 773

that, in any case, the conduct of the girl is viewed with reference to her value to the tribe.

A social grouping which is not the product of forces more active in their nature than the reproductive force may be expected to yield before male motor activities, when these are for any reason sufficiently formulated. The primitive warrior and hunter comes into honor and property through a series of movements involving judgments of time and space, and the successful direc- tion of force, aided by mechanical appliances and mediated through the hand and the eye. Whether directed against the human or the animal world, the principle is the same ; success and honor, and influence in tribal life, depend on the applica- tion of violence at the proper time, in the right direction, and in sufficient measure ; and this is preeminently the business of the male. The advantage of acting in concert in war and hunting, and under the leadership of those who have shown evidence of the best judgment in these matters, is felt in any body of men who are held together by any tie, and the first tie is the tie of blood, by which we should understand, not that primitive man has any sentimental feeling about kinship, but that he is psy- chologically inseparable from those among whom he was born and with whom he has to do. Though the father's sense of kinship and interest in his children is originally feeble, it increases with the growth of consciousness in connection with various activities, and, at the point in race development when chieftainship is hered- itary in the clan and personal property is recognized, the father feels the awkwardness of a social system which reckons his children as members of another clan and forces him to bequeath his rank and possessions to his sisters' children, or other mem- bers of his own group, rather than to his children. The Nava- joes " and Nairs,* and ancient Egyptians l avoided this unpleas- ant condition by giving tlu-ir property to their children during their own lifetime, and the Shawnees. Miamis, Sauks, and Foxes avoided it by naming the children into the clan of the father.

II. II. HAN-CROFT, lot. (it., Vol. I, p. 506.

SlMCOX, loc. ,//.. V,,l. I, ,,. 211. rox, //!,/.