At the outset the principle of efficiency was the sole principle of
organisation, but evidently supremacy which depends exclusively on
personal attributes is but transitory. Only when the chief's place is
forthwith filled by one whose claim is admitted does there begin a
differentiation which survives through successive generations. The
custom of reckoning descent through females, it may be noted, is less
favourable to the establishment of permanent political headship than is
the system of kinship through males, which conduces to a more coherent
family, to a greater culture of subordination and to a more probable
union of inherited position and inherited capacity. In sundry
semi-civilised societies distinguished by permanent political headships,
inheritance through males has been established in the ruling house while
inheritance through females survives in the society at large. Descent
through males also fosters ancestor-worship, and the consequent
reinforcing of natural authority by supernatural authority--a very
powerful factor. Development of the ghost theory, leading as it does to
special fear of the ghosts of powerful men, until, where many tribes
have been welded together by a conqueror, his ghost acquires in
tradition the pre-eminence of a god, produces two effects. In the first
place his descendant is supposed to partake of his divine nature; and in
the second place, by propitiatory sacrifices to him is supposed to
obtain his aid.
From the evolution-standpoint we are enabled to discern the relative
beneficence of institutions which, considered absolutely, are not
beneficent; and we are taught to approve as temporary that which as
permanent we abhor. The evidence shows that subjection to despots has
been largely instrumental in advancing civilised life.