Note 530 — Chapter VI · [168] DISCUSSION OF KINSHIP

Mr. Sidney Hartland has given an exceedingly exhaustive collection of stories "of birth other than what we know as the only natural cause"; of customs in which the "means to which in these stories birth is attributed are or have been actually adopted for the production of children"; and he has compared this folkloristic material with the Australian beliefs. Besides this weight of facts, the author adduces other important reasons why it is extremely probable that "such ignorance was once greater and more widespread than now." The book of Mr. Sidney Hartland is undoubtedly the most thorough and most scientific discussion of the present problem. The strength of his arguments and the mass of evidence strongly support his conclusions. The contrary opinion, viz. that the Australian nescience is an accidental result of some animistic beliefs, an opinion chiefly represented by Mr. A. Lang, seems to be based more on speculation than on facts. The view that the ignorance of paternity was widespread in primitive mankind is shared by Prof. Frazer, M. A. van Gennep, and Frhr. von Reitzenstein. (For references, see below, p. 208, footnote 1.)