It is convenient in the outset to note the importance of carefully distinguishing between the conception of mother-right, implying kinship in the female line, and that of gynocracy, denoting the supremacy of the female sex.[108] Bachofen, as already seen, uses _Mutterrecht_ as comprehending gynocracy; while some of his followers likewise speak confidently of a time when women took social precedence of men, or even held them in political subjection. Such is the view of Giraud-Teulon, who, with Bachofen, interprets the Amazon myth as implying an age in which women exercised a decided social and political domination.[109] Lippert and Unger take a similar position.[110] On the other hand, it is maintained by a number of writers, who reject the idea of a political or military gynocracy, that the inheritance of name and family rights through the mother usually gives woman a decided precedence in the sphere of social life and private law. This is the opinion of Kautsky, who declares that mother-right involves the headship of woman in the family.[111] Peschel,[112] Tylor,[113] Letourneau,[114] and Hellwald[115] hold a similar view; and with them Grosse,[116] Kohler,[117] and Friedrichs,[118] though more reserved, appear in the main to coincide. Dargun likewise rejects the idea of woman's political supremacy, while holding that mother-right sometimes grows into a real matriarchate so far as private law is concerned.[119] The weight of evidence, however, shows that even this modified view exaggerates the advantages gained by woman under mother-right. It may be admitted that here and there--as for instance among the Sioux, the Wyandots, and some other American peoples[120]--the determination of the child's social and legal rights through the mother has somewhat ameliorated the condition of woman. Yet often, as Dargun[121] has so well shown, the same custom has not enabled her to escape social degradation or marital bondage.[122] She is rather the medium through which rights are conveyed and relations established. "Thus, for instance, among the Australians, with whom the clan of the children is, as a rule, determined by that of the mother, the husband is, to quote Mr. Curr, almost an autocrat in his family, and the children always belong to his tribe."[123] Dr. Starcke reaches a similar conclusion. Referring to the "important place" taken by the wife among various African peoples, he declares that all which "has been said only shows that women in some instances enjoy privileges which are always enjoyed by men."[124] In short, if among many peoples at some stage of progress research has clearly demonstrated the existence of mother-right, it has just as clearly shown that the notion of a gynocracy, of a period of female supremacy, is without historical foundation.