swanton: institutional marriage 221 



sister, son, daughter, nephew, niece, etc., it is rather that the 

 general appUcation is an extension of the particular than the 

 particular a speciahzation of the general. Such being the case 

 we have to inquire whence came the largest groups over which 

 these terms were extended. Although their origin may have 

 been various there is reason to beheve that in the majority of 

 cases these clans or gentes, as we now call them, have originated 

 in geographical groups or bands. At any rate the class of tribes 

 first considered is divided into just such geographical groups, 

 and on the north Pacific coast we find the tribes with clans 

 preserving geographical names for their minor di\'isions which 

 are in other respects analogous to the clans found elsewhere. 

 On the other hand, in the first class of tribes we find some in 

 which marriage rarely takes place within the band; not because 

 such marriage is prohibited, but because each band being com- 

 paratively small, considerably more than half may be recog- 

 nized as blood relations by most of its members. This condi- 

 tion of affairs is beUeved to have passed over into a tribal system 

 with clans or gentes through the tendency to marry outside of the 

 band, based on nothing more pronounced than blood relation- 

 ship, which made clan endogamy successively avoided, looked 

 down upon, tolerated, and finall}' prohibited. Be that as it 

 may, the terms of relationship originally based on consanguinity 

 came to be associated with social groups or clans which had only 

 incidental connection with blood relationship, and, so identified, 

 its original significance became obscured or lost; it became a 

 conventionalized institution in which was preserved to only a 

 shght degree the consciousness of its origin. This was the same 

 evolution as that gone through bj" the people in then' material 

 culture, arts, and ceremonial hfe. We will now turn to a con- 

 sideration of some of the different directions in wliich it was 

 developed. 



In the first place tribes of tliis class may be divided between 

 those reckoning descent through the father and those reckoning 

 it through the mother. When the group into which marriage 

 is prohibited becomes stereotyped into an artificial body it is 

 evident that the particular body to which each child is to belong 



