"The communistic household, in which most or all the women belong to one and the same gens, while the husbands come from different gentes, is the cause and foundation of the general and widespread supremacy of women in primeval times.
"It is one of the most absurd notions derived from eighteenth century enlightenment that in the beginning of society woman was the slave of man. Among all savages and barbarians of the lower and middle stages, sometimes even of the higher stage, women not only have freedom but are held in high esteem."
In writing of the pairing family among the Iroquois, Arthur Wright says:
"As to their families, at a time when they still lived in their old long houses (communistic households of several families) … a certain clan (gens) always reigned so that the women chose their husbands from other clans. The female part generally ruled the house;
