[205] Numb., xxxii, 8-11. See Letourneau, _Evolution of Marriage_, p. 326.
Under mother-right there is naturally no prohibition against marriage with a half-sister upon the father's side. This explains the marriage of Abraham with Sarah, his half-sister by the same father. When reproached for having passed his wife off as his sister to the King of Egypt, the patriarch replies: "For indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife."[208] In the same way Tamar could have married her half-brother Amnon, though they were both the children of David: "Speak to the King, for he will not withhold me from thee." And it was her uterine brother, Absalom, who revenged the rape of Tamar by slaying; afterwards he fled to the kindred of his mother.[209] Again, the father of Moses and Aaron married his father's sister, who legally was not considered to be related to him.[210] Nabor, the brother of Abraham, took to wife his fraternal niece, the daughter of his brother.[211] It was only later that paternal kinship became legally recognised among the Hebrews by the same titles as the natural kinship through the mother.
It is by considering these survivals of mother-right in connection with similar customs to be found among existing maternal peoples that we see their true significance. They warrant us in believing that the patriarchal family, as we know it among the Hebrews and elsewhere, was a later stage of an evolution, which had for its starting-point the communal clan, and that these races have passed through the maternal phase. We come to understand the change in the privileged position of women. As the husband and father continued to gain in power, with the reassertion of individual interests, it was inevitable that the mother should lose the authority she had held, under the free social organisation of the undivided clan.
Traces of a similar evolution of the family may, I am convinced, be found by all who will undertake an inquiry for themselves. The subject is one of great interest. So far as my own study goes, I believe that these survivals of the maternal-group customs may be discovered in the early history of every people, where the necessary material for such knowledge is available. I wish it were possible for me even to summarise all the evidence, direct and inferential, that I have collected for my own satisfaction. I must reluctantly pass over many countries I would like to include; some of these--China, Japan, Burma and Madagascar--have been noticed briefly in _The Truth about Woman_.[212] There is surprising similarity between the facts; and, the more of such survivals that can be found, the more the evidence seems to grow in favour of the acceptance of a universal maternal stage in the evolution of society.
