Abstract
IT is interesting to place these two books side by side in order to contrast the methods of attacking the problems involved in the study of primitive society which have been adopted by the respective schools to which the authors belong, (1) Dr. Hartland is one of the leading exponents of the view that there is a reasonable presumption that in the evolution of society wherever the patriarchal system now exists it has been preceded by the matriarchate. In the volume under notice he restates this view and summarises the evidence on which it is based in popular form. (2) Dr. Lowie, however, maintains that this theory is based upon an a priori assumption, and that Morgan and his followers, in their desire to formulate a logical scheme of social evolution, have distorted the facts by confining their attention to a single group of data. Pouring scorn on the heads of “the older school of anthropologists,” he insists upon the empirical character of the evidence, and would have each case taken on its merits, subjected to intensive study, and treated as a whole.
(1) Primitive Society: The Beginnings of the Family and the Reckoning of Descent.
By Dr. E. S. Hartland. Pp. v + 180. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 6s. net.
(2) Primitive Society.
By Dr. R. H. Lowie. Pp. viii + 453. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1921.) 21s. net.
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(1) Primitive Society: The Beginnings of the Family and the Reckoning of Descent (2) Primitive Society. Nature 109, 203 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109203a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109203a0