Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/423

Rh fact is brought out very clearly that the nations of Egypt and Assyria may have reached a high state of development when the northern shores of the Mediterranean may have witnessed the advance of the ice sheet, depopulating Europe and preparing a new era on its disappearance. In its way it is an interesting and suggestive book.

, a member of the Finnish School of Anthropology, which owes its origin to Professor Westermarck, has followed up his useful monograph on the Origin of the Priesthood by a similar treatise on the Primary Causes of Social Inequality.

In most primitive tribes differences of social rank are non- existent, but their beginnings may be traced in the political and social inferiority of women, which, however, is not so fully recognized as is generally believed, women often exercising considerable authority in the household, and even becoming chiefs. Aged persons are also respected, but often only so long as bodily vigour exists, and in some cases the old and infirm are killed. In such tribes, again, gradations of rank are established in rites of initiation, which the writer connects closely with marriage, and they are defined by the grants of new names and by customs of tattooing or incision.

In its preliminary stages social inequality often results from the subjection of a lower by a higher race, but perhaps more generally from the recognition of personal superiority. This may be based on the supposed possession of supernatural gifts, the power of eloquence, courage and skill in hunting, renown in war, or submission to ordeals intended as a test of endurance. It carries with it the right to the possession of trophies gained by head-hunting or scalping, the victim being supposed to become in another world the slave of his conqueror; by the conferment of certain weapons or ornaments, such as horns, feathers, etc.; by