Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1913-04-30
History of the Primitive Family.

History Of the Primitive Family.
By the primitive family we do not
mean necessarily the earliest form
of the family but rather the form
that the family takes in primitive So
ciety, that is, in the lowest stages
Of civilization. 49,.
The primitive family consists of
the mother and her children. Mother
love is older and deeper biological
ly than father-love, and the print
tive father did not concern himself
about his offspring. We may call
this the
Matrimonial Family-The children
of the same mother continued to live
together, if not separated by some
external cause. AS even primitive
people usually have a horror for en-
dogamy (the marriage Of close blood
relatives, as sister and brother, niece
and uncle), members of clan of
matriarchal families, usually did not
live in marital relations with men,
bers of their own clan. Hence it
came to pass that the mothers and
children regularly belonged to an
other group than the fathers and
hence the children grew up strang-
ers to their fathers and their faith
ers' clan. Each community group,
which we have for convenience call
ed a clan, consisted of people relat-
ed through the female line only.
| NO TEACHING OF OBEDIENCE
IN THE MATRIARCHAL FAMILY.
In the biological evolution many a
species has got off the main path of
progress into some blind alley where
progress is definitely, barred. Even
so it is in the social evolution. Moth
ing higher than tribal society was
possible with the matriarchal family
as a foundation.
Habit is the hub Of society. It is
quite safe to say that at the age OF
thirty all of an individuals socially
important habits are fixed. In the
Savage breasts" habits harden
much earlier. Probably the attain
ment Of full growth and the fixing
Of habits occur at about the same
time in primitive people. 1t should
be added that the higher in the scale
Of culture a people is, the less il
is the slave of habit and custom: W.
may safely say then that at twenty
years Of age, the young savage is
perfectly settled in his manner Of
life, his habit-grooves are formed 81
that his after life is but a repetition
of formula he knows by heart
Now, it is not natural for man tt
obey. Obedience is an artificial trai
that must be instilled as habit int
the growing child. The savag'
mother does this, however quite a!
successfully as her civilized sister
even if not quite so gracefully ant
delicately. In the matriarchal fam
lily boys have to obey, oh, yes, til
they are stronger than their mother
Owing to the difference in physica
strength of the sexes, the son be-
comes as strong as his mother us
ually when he reaches his sixteenth
year. Then what? The habits O.
boy of sixteen are not formed. Il
fact, they are less formed than il
a boy Of eleven years, for at the ag
Of adolescence there is a genera
breaking up Of the whole child-sys
TEN, and the habit channels Of tn
nerve centers suffer revolution will
the rest. The boy Of sixteen wishe
to try new things. With only (
mother to restrain him he will tr,
them. He will revel in the posses
sion Of an unlimited and illimitabl
license to whatever the momen
tempts him to do. He gets into tn
habit of being amenable to no reg
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elders Of the tribe he learns to ODE,
after a while, but as said council i
a very spasmodic and accidental in
stitution, there is really very it'll
organization in a matriarchal tribe
No great despots can arise amon|
them to hurry up the industrial AM
political development, for there i
not enough social glue in the matri
archal tribe to hold a despotism to
gether. The people have not Learned
the art of obeying. They have be
sides so few possessions and socia
ties by which to be bound. If an,
great individual begins to be to-
great to get along without the obed
fence Of his neighbors, said neigh
bors simply move away from him
There is very little to tie them t.
anv sone 1oca1itv- Even the cantiv