Among the most conspicuous of the writers who have dealt with the subject of primitive society are Herr Bachofen, Mr. J.?F. McLennan, Sir John Lubbock, and Mr. L.?H. Morgan. In 1861, the first-named of these writers, a Swiss jurist, published an extensive work on the early condition of society, entitled Das Mutter-recht (The Motherright), in which was first given to the world the fact that prior to the establishment of a system of kinship through males, there everywhere existed a system based on female supremacy, under which descent was reckoned through women.  
Bachofen was first led to a belief in a former state of society in which women were the recognized leaders through the evidence which everywhere underlies the traditions and mythologies of extant nations. Upon investigation he found indisputable evidence going to prove that every family of the human race had undergone the same processes of development or growth, and that among all peoples female influence was once supreme.
 
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According to Bachofen’s theory, as there were at this early stage of human existence no “laws” regulating the intercourse between the sexes, human beings lived in a state of lawlessness, or hetairism. Recognizing the difference in the reproductive instinct as manifested in the two sexes, he says that becoming disgusted with their manner of living women rebelled, and rising in arms, conquered their male persecutors by sheer superiority in military skill; and that after they had overthrown the degrading practices of communal or lawless marriage, they established monogamy in its stead, under which system woman became the recognized head of the family.
 
Children, although they had hitherto succeeded to the father’s name, were now called after the mother, and all rights of inheritance were thereafter established in the female line. Not only did women take upon themselves the exercise of domestic authority and control, but, acting under a strong religious impulse, they seized the reins of popular government and completed their title to absolute dominion by wielding the political sceptre as well, thus declaring themselves unconditional masters of the situation.
 
At this juncture in human affairs, the belief began to be entertained that motherhood was divine while the paternal office was regarded only in the light of a human relation. Thus, through religion, women were raised from a state of hetairism, or sexual slavery, to a position of independ205ence and self-respect. But that which was gained through a supernatural impulse they were destined subsequently to lose through the same source; for, when in Greece, the doctrine was promulgated that the spirit of the child is derived from its father, paternity at once assumed a divine character, and, as under the new order, the functions of the mother were only to clothe the spirit, or simply to act as “nurse” to the heaven-born production of the father, women lost their supremacy, and under the new régime, maternity and womanhood again trailed in the dust.
 
According to Bachofen, however, the cause of mothers did not at once cease to be the subject of contention and conflict, but ever and anon fresh battles and renewed struggles proclaimed the discontent and uneasiness of women and heralded the fact that the contest for supremacy had not yet ended. But, in process of time, as resistance proved ineffectual, mothers themselves gradually succumbed to the new idea of the divine character of the father, and, without further murmuring or complaint, accepted gracefully the position of nurse to his children.
 
The father now became the recognized head of the family, and men at once seized the reins of government. Descent was henceforth traced in the male line, and children took the father’s instead of the mother’s name; in fact all relationships to which rights of succession were attached were thereafter traced through fathers only. The206 complete and final triumph of males having been established by the all-powerful authority of Roman jurisprudence, the conflict between the sexes was ended forever. Thus, according to Bachofen, was the supremacy of women gained and lost.
 
Through a profound study of the traditions, legends, symbols, and mythologies of antiquity, this writer was enabled to discover the fact that at an earlier age in human history women were the recognized leaders of mankind; that their influence and authority were supreme over both the family and the community, and that all relationships to which rights of succession were attached were traced through them. In attempting to account for this early period of gynecocracy (the existence of which to Bachofen’s mind no doubt presented a singular and intricate problem) it first became necessary to set forth a theory concerning a former condition of society out of which such a state could have been evolved. But as at the time Das Mutter-recht made its appearance, the theory of the development of the human species from pre-existing orders had not been adopted by scientists, and as many of the various means at present employed for obtaining a knowledge of primitive races had not been brought into requisition, even the vast learning of Bachofen did not suffice to furnish a satisfactory solution of the problem.
 
We have seen that in addition to the discovery that at an early age in human experience female207 influence was supreme, he had arrived at the conclusion that the natural instincts of women differ from those of men; yet, notwithstanding this, so accustomed had he become to the predominance of the masculine instincts in every branch of human activity as to be unable to conceive of a state of society in which the characters belonging to females could have controlled the sexual relations. Evidently he was unable to connect these two facts, or to perceive that that tendency or quality required for the protection of the germ and the species, and which so early characterized the female sex, had constituted the most primitive influence by which the human race had been governed. As in the earliest ages of human existence no arbitrary laws regulating marriage and the relations of the sexes had been in operation, he could discern no condition under which society could have existed other than that of “lawlessness” or “hetairism”—a condition under which women were slaves, and men ruled supreme.
 
As Herr Bachofen was doubtless unaware of the fact that the human animal is a descendant from creatures lower in the scale of life, the idea of connecting his history with theirs had probably by him never been thought of; therefore, judging primitive society, not by the instincts and the natural laws governing them which mankind had inherited from their progenitors, but, on the contrary, measuring them by the standards of later ages when the grosser or disruptive elements had208 gained dominion over the finer or constructive qualities in human nature, he was unable to discern any way in which the conditions of female supremacy everywhere indicated in the traditions and mythologies of antiquity could have originated, except in an uprising of women, and a resort to arms for the protection of their womanly dignity.
 
In referring to the military exploits of the women of Lycia, and, in fact, of various portions of Africa and Asia, at a comparatively late stage in human history, Bachofen says that the importance of Amazonianism as opposed to Hetairism for the elevation of the feminine sex, and through them of mankind, cannot be doubted.
 
There seems to be considerable evidence going to prove that there have been times in the past history of the race in which women were brave in war and valiant in defending their rights. Indeed, the accounts given of the struggles of the Amazons in maintaining their independence against surrounding nations—notably, the Greeks—are tolerably well a............