The dawn of history : an introduction to pre-historic study / edited by C.F. Keary.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dawn of history : an introduction to pre-historic study / edited by C.F. Keary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    chief, but is vested in an assembly of all the householders. The second marked peculiarity is the common possession of nearly all the land by the village, combined The as_ with the individual possession of goods of a sembly of movable nature by the different members. house- These may be said to be the two essentials of holdeis. a true village community. Now the change from the patri- archal to this later social form may have taken place by either of two processes — the extension of an individual family into a community, or the amalgamation of various families. Probably both of these processes took place ; but wherever anything like the formation of a village community has been actually observed, and the process has occasionally been discernible even in modern times in India, it is due to the former of the two causes indicated. This mode of formation also appears to have left the most distinct impress on society, and we will therefore notice first how it probably acted. When a family had devoted itself to agricultural pursuits, and settled in a fixed locality, one of those divisions of its members might take place which probably were of frequent occurrence in the nomadic state. Although theoretically we speak of the patriarchal family as united and indivisible, yet as a matter of fact we know that it could not always ihave been so, and that families must frequently have either split up, or else sent off little colonies from their midst. Now, we have seen how marked an effect the settlement of the family must have had in preserving a permanent connection between that family and the households which sprang out of it. The separation between the older and the younger households would be by no means so complete as ormerly. The subsidiary family would continue in close ntercourse with the elder branch, and would enjoy with it