The mothers : a study of the origins of sentiments and institutions in three volumes
- London George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1927
- 3v.; bibliog.; index
Volume 1. 1 'In the beginning was the word'. 2 Traditional heredity. 3 The evolution of motherhood. 4 The origin of love. 5 The herd and the family amongst animals. 6 The primitive human group. 7 The motherhood. 8 The matriarchal phase in civilised societies. 9 Primitive division of labour between the sexes. 10 The institution of marriage. 11 Group-marriage and sexual communism. 12 Group-marriage and sexual communism (continued). Volume 2. 13 Promiscuity and individual marriage. 14 Primitive jealousy and love. 15 The selection of a husband and the acquisition of a wife. 16 The social evolution of monogamic marriage. 17 Tabu. 18 The totem. 19 The witch and the priestess. 20 The lord of the women. 21 The resurrection and the life. 22 Primitive cosmic religion. Volume 3. 23 The magical origin of queens. 24 The great mothers. 25 Holy matrimony. 26 Modesty. 27 Purity. 28 Romance. 29 Romance (continued). 30 The mothers
'I had proposed to draw up a list of the forms of the social instincts, and to investigate their origin. I had not proceeded far before I discovered, to my surprise, that the social characters of the human mind are, one and all, traceable to the operation of instincts that are related to the functions of the female and not to those of the male....I was thus led to reconsider the early development of human society, of its fundamental institutions and traditions, in the light of the matriarchal theory of social evolution.'