II. _The Family in Melanesia._--Melanesian rape--First formation of societies--Exogamy--The Australian clans--Native marriage state--Marriage of clans among the Kamilaroi--Their social incest--How a clan originates--Fictitious fraternity and the _totem_--How individual marriage is made among the Kurnai--Maternal filiation--Agnation tends to be constituted--Evolution of the family in Melanesia. III. _The Family in America._--The Redskin clans--Common dwellings--Rights and duties--Exogamy of the clan--Clans of the _Pueblos_--The family among the Indians of South America--Relationship among the Redskins--Communism--Maternal filiation--Distinction between the matriarchate and the maternal family--Origin of the ideas of relationship. I. _The Family._ I shall now attempt to retrace as clearly as I can the history of the evolution of the family, first of all ascertaining the facts that have been observed, and then using these facts as a touchstone to try the solidity of the various sociological theories that have been put forth on the subject. Among these theories, there are some which have been very favourably received, and not without reason. Insufficient as they might be, they reduced a chaos of facts into order, and contained a certain amount of truth. All of them are open to criticism and contest, both because they are the fruit of a too hasty generalisation, and because their authors have claimed for them a certainty which sociological facts do not easily bear out. Human groups have always lived as they could, without caring about theories; their social conduct inevitably results from a sort of compromise in the conflict between their appetites, their aptitudes, and the necessities dictated by their physical environment. Before hazarding any general conclusions, I shall be careful, as before, to refer to comparative ethnography, and to interrogate the various human races, from the lowest to the most elevated. This inquiry will enable us to form a rough idea, with a certain approximation to truth, in regard to the probable evolution of the family in humanity. But in order to approach this subject with sufficient impartiality, it is absolutely necessary to clear our minds from all the current theories in regard to the family. There is, in fact, no theme which has inspired more empty oratorical lucubrations. The doctrine has been firmly held that the family, as we have it instituted in Europe and in European colonies, is the _beau idéal_, the sacred and immutable sociological type. Ethnography, however, and even history, teach us that the present familial type of Europe has not always existed, and that it is the result, like everything else, of a slow evolution; from whence it is reasonable to infer that it will still continue to be modified. But facts are more eloquent than reflections; I will therefore approach them, beginning with the lowest human races, the Melanesians. II. _The Family in Melanesia._