The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought | Page 6

unrelated to another, the same sound will be
used to denote the "mother" that in the second signifies "father," thus
evidencing the applicability of these words, in the earliest stages of
their existence, to either, or to both, of the parents of the child (166. 85).
Pott, while remarking a wonderful resemblance in the names for
parents all over the world, seeks to establish the rather doubtful thesis
that there is a decided difference in the nature of the words for "father"
and those for "mother," the former being "man-like, stronger," the latter
"woman-like, mild" (517. 57).
Some languages apparently do not possess a single specialized word for
"mother." The Hawaiian, for example, calls "mother and the sisters of
the mother" _makua wahine,_ "female parent," that being the nearest

equivalent of our "mother," while in Tonga, as indeed with us to-day,
sometimes the same term is applied to a real mother and to an adopted
one (100. 389). In Japan, the paternal aunt and the maternal aunt are
called "little mother." Similar terms and appellations are found in other
primitive tongues. A somewhat extended discussion of names for
"mother," and the questions connected with the subject, will be found
in Westermarck (166. 85). Here also will be found notices of the names
among various peoples for the nearest relatives of the mother and father.
Incidentally it is worth noting that Westermarck controverts Professor
Vambéry's opinion that the Turko-Tartar words for "mother," ana, ene,
originally meant "nurse" or "woman" (from the root an, _en_), holding
that exactly the reverse is the fact, "the terms for mother being the
primitive words." He is also inclined to think that the Aryan roots pa,
"to protect, to nourish," and ma, "to fashion," came from pa, "father,"
and ma, "mother," and not _vice versâ_. Mr. Bridges, the missionary
who has studied so well the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, states that
"the names imu and _dabi_--father and mother--have no meaning apart
from their application, neither have any of their other very definite and
ample list of terms for relatives, except the terms macu [cf. magu,
"parturition"] and macipa [cf. cipa, "female"], son and daughter." This
statement is, however, too sweeping perhaps (166. 88).
According to Colonel Mallery, the Ute Indians indicate "mother" by
placing the index finger in the mouth (497a. 479). Clark describes the
common Indian sign as follows: "Bring partially curved and
compressed right hand, and strike with two or three gentle taps right or
left breast, and make sign for _female_; though in conversation the
latter is seldom necessary. Deaf mutes make sign for female, and cross
hands as in their sign for baby, and move them to front and upwards"
(420. 262). Somewhat similar is the sign for "father": "Bring the
compressed right hand, back nearly outwards, in front of right or left
breast, tips of fingers few inches from it; move the hand, mostly by
wrist action, and gently tap the breast with tips of fingers two or three
times, then make sign for male. Some Indians tap right breast for
'father,' and left for 'mother.' Deaf-mutes make sign for male, and then
holding hands fixed as in their sign for baby, but a little higher, move
the hands to front and upwards" (420. 167).

Interesting is the following statement of Mr. Codrington, the
well-known missionary to the Melanesians:--
"In Mota the word used for 'mother' is the same that is used for the
division [tribe?] veve, with a plural sign ra veve. And it is not that a
man's kindred are so called after his mother, but that his mother is
called his kindred, as if she were the representative of the division to
which he belongs; as if he were not the child of a particular woman, but
of the whole kindred for whom she brought him into the world."
Moreover, at Mota, in like fashion, "the word for 'consort,' 'husband,' or
'wife,' is in a plural form ra soai, the word used for members of a body,
or the component parts of a canoe" (25. 307-8).
_Mother-Right_.
Since the appearance of Bachofen's famous book on the matriarchate,
"mother-right," that system of society in which the mother is paramount
in the family and the line of inheritance passes through her, has
received much attention from students of sociology and primitive
history.
Post thus defines the system of mother-right:--
"The matriarchate is a system of relationship according to which the
child is related only to his mother and to the persons connected with
him through the female line, while he is looked upon as not related to
his father and the persons connected with him through the male line.
According to this system, therefore, the narrowest family circle consists
not, as with us to-day, of father, mother, and child, but of