Through the attention which in these later years has been directed toward surviving tribes in the so-called middle and later stages of savagery, and in the three successive periods of barbarism, have doubtless been revealed many of the processes by which mankind have reached their present condition. Much of the information, however, which has been obtained by these inquiries still lacks that accuracy in detail demanded by exact science; but, so soon as the array of facts which the last half-century has brought to bear upon this subject shall have been correctly interpreted, logically arranged, intelligently classified, and without prejudice brought into line with the truths involved in the theory of natural development, there will doubtless be approximated a system of truth which will furnish a safe and trustworthy foundation for a more thorough research into the history of the human race.
Although the facts relative to existing undeveloped races, which have been laid before the reading public through the patience and industry of investigators in this particular branch of inquiry, have been of incalculable value as furnishing a foundation for a correct understanding of the origin of the customs, manners, ceremonies, governments, languages, and systems of consanguinity and affinity of a primitive race, and although without these efforts little knowledge of the early history of mankind could be obtained, yet, as a majority of the theories built upon these observations have been based on long-established prejudices relative to the earliest conditions surrounding human society and the forces by which it was controlled, many false conclusions have been the inevitable result.
We have seen that owing to the ascendency which the masculine element in human society gained during the period designated as the Latter Status of barbarism, the popular ideas evolved since that time concerning the origin and development of government, social usages, religion, and law, have been in accordance with the then established assumption that within the male organism lies not only the active, aggressive element, but the progressive principle as well. It is not, therefore, singular that at the present time all the lines of investigation which are being directed toward man in a primitive state, or which are being conducted for the avowed purpose of ascertaining the successive steps by which our social, civil, and religious institutions have been reared, should continue to be carried on under the _a priori_ assumption that the male organism is by nature superior to that of the female.