Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/452

436 along with other property. Sundry examples of this have been given; and many others might be added. Smith says of the Mapuchès that "a widow by the death of her husband becomes her own mistress, unless he may have left grown-up sons by another wife, in which case she becomes their common concubine, being regarded as a chattel naturally belonging to the heirs of the estate."

Thus recognizing the truth that as long as women continue to be stolen or bought, their human individualities are ignored, let us observe the division of labor that results between the sexes; determined partly by this unqualified despotism of men and partly by the limitations which certain incapacities of women entail.

The slave-class in a primitive society consists of the women; and the earliest division of labor is that which arises between them and their masters. For a long time no other division of labor exists. Of course nothing more is to be expected among such low, wandering groups as Tasmanians, Australians, Fuegians, Andamanese, Bushmen. Nor do we find any advance in this respect made by the higher hunting races, such as the Comanches, Chippewas, Dakotas, etc.

Of the occupations thus divided, the males put upon the females whatever these are not disabled from doing by inadequate strength, or agility, or skill. While the men among the now-extinct Tasmanians added to the food only that furnished by the kangaroos they chased, the women climbed trees for opossums, dug up roots with sticks, groped for shell-fish, dived for oysters, and fished, in addition to looking after their children; and there now exists a kindred apportionment among the Fuegians, Andamanese, Australians. Where the food consists wholly or mainly of the greater mammals, the men catch and the women carry. We read of the Chippewas that "when the men kill any large beast, the women are always sent to bring it to the tent;" of the Comanches, that the women "often accompany their husbands in hunting—he kills the game, they butcher and transport the meat, dress the skins, etc.;" of the Esquimaux, that when the man has "brought his booty to land, he troubles himself no further about it; for it would be a stigma on his character, if he so much as drew a seal out of the water." Though, in these cases, an excuse made is that the exhaustion caused by the chase is great, yet, when we read that the Esquimaux women, excepting the woodwork, "build the houses and tents, and though they have to carry stones almost heavy enough to break their backs, the men look on with the greatest insensibility, not stirring a finger to assist them," we cannot accept the excuse as adequate. Further, it is the custom with these low races, nomadic or semi-nomadic in their habits, to give the females the task of transporting the baggage. A Tasmanian woman often had piled on all the other burdens she carried when tramping, "sundry spears and waddies not required for present service;" and the like