994 The tious and magical or of real blood relationship. members of a group are members of that group and not of another because they are related by "mana, or as kin to others in the group. This group of kindred tracing relationship and descent through mothers or through fathers is found in ethnic society, both savage and bar From The Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology. FIGURE 75. Baskets made by the Pima Indians of Southern /barian, and is generally known as the "clan." "Any group of kindred which includes all descendants of a first mother through her daughters, granddaughters, and so on, and excludes all descendants through her sons, grandsons, and so on, is a metronymic clan. In like manner, any group of kindred which includes all descendants of a first father through his sons, grandsons, and so on, and 4 "Mana" is that mysterious strength, virtue, grace, creating, saving, or healing power which the primitive mind associates with many objects, and which he believes to be communicable or contagious. It is the basis of much primitive religious belief, of magic, and of the North American Indian's "medicine." excludes all descendants through his daughters, granddaughters, and so on, is a patronymic clan."5 Thus the clan is of two forms, the metronymic, in which descent is traced through the mother line only, and the patronymic, in which the descent is traced through the father line only. 7. In the literature of historic peoples there is evidence which indicates that the clan was a very widespread institution in ancient times. The clan existed among the Greeks. Homer tells us of the manner in which the Greek warriors were separated by tribes and by clans. In the Old Testament of the Bible there are frequent passages revealing the existence of social organization on kinship lines. The metronymic clan existed in Shechem, for we read that Abimelech went unto "his mother's brethren" and because he was regarded as their brother obtained favor with them. When Abram went down into Egypt he directed his wife Sarai, who was a beautiful woman, to say that she was his sister in order that the Egyptians in seeking to take her might not kill her husband. Afterwards he explained that while she was the daughter of his father, she was not the daughter of his mother. In accordance with the metronymic system of relationship he could marry her because only relation in the mother line counted. The clan or gens existed among the Romans in the early historical period; those related to each other through males were known as agnati, those related to each other through females 8 5 Giddings, Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 453. 6 Homer, The Iliad, translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers, p. 32; and Morgan, L. H.-Ancient Society, p. 222. 7 Judges, ch. ix, 1-3. 8 Genesis, ch. xii, 10-20; ch. xx. were known as cognati. Among the Hindoos the clan is called the Gôtra and among the Arabs the Hayy. Among the ancient Irish the clan was variously called the Tuath, Cinel, or Clann.10 As only incomplete records come down to us of social life among these historic peoples in the period when they were organized in clans and tribes-on the pattern. of ethnic organization in general-we shall find it more profitable to study primitive society as it exists to-day, and from this study, attempt to reconstruct a picture of what social relations were among the men of the prehistoric period. Certain American Indian tribal groups, especially the tribes of the Iroquois confederacy and certain North Pacific Coast tribes, and the native tribes of Australia, are fairly typical of important characteristics in the life of primitive peoples. We will, therefore, study these primitive groups to gain a picture of social organization among uncivilized peoples. The Iroquois tribes inhabited a region including the greater part of the present states of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and portions of Canada north of Lake Ontario. It is thought that they originally came from beyond the Mississippi, making their way to the valley of the St. Lawrence and thence into central New York. The five tribes of the Iroquois people were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. They resided in villages which were usually surrounded by stockades, and subsisted upon fish and game, and the products of a limited horticulture. In numbers they did 9 Justinian, Institutes, Lib. I, xv. i, Cf. Gaius, i. 156; also Morgan, op. cit., pp. 285-308. 10 Ginnell, The Brehon Laws, pp. 102-109. |