, swanton: institutional marriage 223 



is evident that we have only one possible choice in marriage. 

 Each man or woman must mate in the other half of the tribe, 

 and theoretically all of the men and women of one-half are 

 fathers or mothers, and uncles or aunts, brothers and sisters, 

 and nieces and nephews or children, while those on the other 

 side are after marriage brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and the 

 complementary relations in the fathers' and children's genera- 

 tions. Practically, these terms were sometimes more limited 

 because in large tribes the two exogamous groups were sub- 

 divided and a man's attitude toward individuals of the minor 

 groups to which his blood or marriage relations belonged was 

 distinguished in some degree from the rest. This was, however, 

 only an occasional modification. 



In tribes with three clans one clan would contain fathers, 

 aunts, brothers and sisters, another mothers, uncles, and per- 

 haps cousins, and a third brothers- and sisters-in-law. In other 

 words, as was the case with two-clan tribes, the whole nation 

 would bear some relation to each individual. Another thing 

 to be noticed is that with absolute exogamy enforced, as re- 

 spected the clans of both father and mother, there would be a 

 regular sequence of clans in each strain of blood. For if the 

 tribe consists of three clans, Wolf, Bear, and Panther and we 

 assume that marriage takes place between a Wolf man and a 

 Panther woman, descent being male the children will all be 

 Wolves. Now, as they cannot marry into either the clan of the 

 father or into that of the mother, they must marry into the 

 Bear. The children of the boys will belong to the Wolf, of 

 course, and when they marry must marry into the Panther. 

 The children of the girls will be Bear, but they also must marry 

 into the Panther. If we follow the male line we shall, indeed, 

 never have any other clan than the Wolf, but the clan of the 

 mother will alternate in every generation from Panther to Bear 

 and back again to Panther. If we follow the female line we 

 shall have a regular change in each generation from Wolf to 

 Bear, and then to Panther and back again to Wolf. If descent 

 is female the result will be just the converse of this but in its 

 practical results will differ none at all. 



