438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Superior region, in the Hudson's Bay Territory, and in the territories 

 between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and by cor- 

 respondence with government officials and private individuals in other 

 parts of North America, I have been able to bring together the sys- 

 tem of relationship of upwards of seventy Indian nations, speaking 

 as many independent dialects. Beside these, and by means of the 

 foreign correspondence referred to, the system of the principal nations 

 of Europe and Asia, of a portion of those of Africa, of Central and 

 South America, and of the Islands of the Pacific, have also been ob- 

 tained. The tabulated schedules, now in course of publication by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, will cover four hundred and fifty pages of the 

 Smithsonian Contributions, and represent four fifths and upwards, 

 numerically, of the entire human family. These strictly personal 

 statements would be inappropriate in this connection, except as they 

 become necessary to show that the solution about to be presented rests 

 upon a wide basis of ascertained facts. 



I propose to present, in a brief form, 1st. The system of relation- 

 ship of the Ai-yan Family: using the Roman form as typical. 2d. 

 That of the Malayan Family : using the Hawaiian form as typical. 

 3d. That of the Ganowanian* Family: using the Seneca-Iroquois as 

 typical. These are preliminary to the principal object, which is: 

 4th. To submit a conjectural solution of the origin of the classificatory 

 system of relationship. 



It may be premised that all of the systems of consanguinity and 

 affinity, thus far ascertained, resolve themselves into two radically 

 distinct forms, of which one will be called the descriptive, and the 

 other the classificatory. 



In the first, consanguinei are, in the main, described by a combina- 

 tion of the primary terms of relationship. There is a small amount 

 of classification, by means of special or secondary terms introduced 

 by civilians and scholars to relieve the burdensomeness of the system ; 

 but the great body of relatives, both by blood and marriage, are de- 

 scribed. This is the system of the Aryan, Semitic, and Uralian fami- 

 lies. In its origin, as the parent of the present form, it was purely 

 descriptive, as is still exemplified by the Erse and Scandinavian, 

 and by the condition of the Sanskritic, when this language ceased to 

 be spoken. This system follows the streams of the blood, and is in 



* Ga-no-wa'-ni-an : name proposed for the American Indian family. From 

 Gii'-no, an anew, and VVtia'-no, a bow ; the family of tiie Bow and ArroAv. 



