The Social or matriarchal took precedence of the Local or patriarchal organization.
Tylor, Primitive Culture (London, 1903); and article on the "Matriarchal Family System," in the Nineteenth Century, xl.
The first was matriarchal, inheritance being reckoned through the mother.
Reinach (reviewing P. Mazan's L'Orestie d'Eschyle, 1902) defends the theory of Bachofen, who finds in the legend of Orestes an indication of the decay of matriarchal ideas.
Polygamy is general in upper Bagirmi, where some traces of a matriarchal stage of society linger, one small state being called Beled-el-Mra, "Women's Land," because its ruler is always a queen.
