mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens
of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On
such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or
period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental
work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among
the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic
peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal
period was not a time when women were in possession of political or
economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is
fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to
patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the
brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands
and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its
advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred,
would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the
force of the taboos which we have described.[53]

With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of
marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of
man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under
these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset,
since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another.
Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after
marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to
consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other
man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic
magic, where the slightest contact works contamination.

We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in
Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the