FAMILY

as the word is now understood, means the father, mother, their children, and other kindred. This modern conception of the term is derived from the ancient patriarchal form of f., in which the eldest male was e entially the ‘father of the family,’ and exercised supreme powers over his wife, or wives, their children, and the husbands and wives of the children, during the entire length of his days. It has been a umed by some writers that the patriarchal form was preceded by @ promiscuous state, when sexual relations existed between persons of near kin. As opposed to this theory there is plenty of evidence regarding exogamy, a ociated with totemism, which prohibited marriage between members of the same tribe (i.e. endogamy). Arising out of the prohibition demanded by the custom of exogamy there came into existence the beenah form of marriage, of which there are numerous examples in the Bible. By this method a woman. of one tribe received a lover, or lovers from another tribe, and all childrer born of the connection became the prop erty of the mother’s tribe. Often however, the father forsook his own tribe and was formally received into that of! the mother of his offspring. Marriage by capture, or by purchase, was _ alsc contemporaneous with the beenah form of marriage. The term family is alsc used by botanists and zoologists to describe trees, plants, or animals belong: ing to a particular genus.