In fact, as we hinted above, and as we shall have opportunity of discussing below[551] in connection with the evidence, there is little ground for speaking of _authority_, _patria potestas_, "_ownership_" or any similar attributes of the father as regards his children in Australia. It must not be forgotten that these words are nearly meaningless as long as they have not a legal sense. According to the definition of _legal_ we should say that two people stand to each other in a purely legal relation when certain norms are laid down and actively sanctioned by society, which requires a definite mutual behaviour and attitude on the part of each. It was pointed out above that in Australia we have data allowing us to speak of the legal aspect of social institutions and relations;[552] it appears improbable, though, that there could be found any _purely_ legal relation. At any rate, nothing of that sort determines or forms the substance of the relation between father and child in Australia. If a father should kill or abandon his child, he would, for all we know, be left quite undisturbed. Nobody compels him to provide for its subsistence, to protect it and care for it.[553] There are spontaneous elements that bind him to it. And these spontaneous elements (to discover them will be our task) determine his relation to his child. Undoubtedly this kinship relation presents _some_ legal features, such as, for instance, his right to dispose of his daughter in marriage (a right which in some tribes is reported to belong to the mother or mother's brother). But we know very little about it.[554] At any rate, there are only a few occasions on which the relation in question involves any possibility of social intervention.[555] [551] pp. 186, 254. [552] pp. 11 _sqq._ [553] In our society, if parents wish to abandon their progeny while still dependent, they would be prevented by the law from doing it, and compelled to perform a series of duties and services, which usually spring from the natural parental love. Thus we see that in our society the relation between parents and children has much more of a legal character than in Australia. Nevertheless it would seem quite absurd to style this relation in our society as essentially a legal one. It has only its legal sides, which, comparatively, are seldom put into action, especially while the children are not yet grown up, _i. e._ just during the period when the relationship in question is the most important. [554] Compare pp. 254 _sqq._ [555] The legal norms are an essential object of study also from the standpoint that they may be the expression of some important ideas held about kinship. Especially the motivation of these norms, as given by the aborigines, may be of high value in this respect. But obviously this does not mean that kinship is a legal category.