416 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



ing a phase of the tribal organization, together with a sexual organi- 

 zation, antecedent to the former in point of time, not hitherto known, 

 except generally, as the writer believes.* 



We may further observe that the tribal institution was one of the 

 oldest of the human family. Commencing in savagery and traversing 

 the remainder of this period and the whole period of barbarism, it has 

 probably been more influential than any other single institution upon 

 human advancement. The nations of the Aryan and Semitic families 

 were tribally organized in the remote past, lived and progressed under 

 it, and only emerged from it, or laid it aside, when they had reached the 

 commencement of their civilized careers. Property overthrew tribal- 

 ism. In like manner the nations of the Turanian family were thus 

 organized in the barbarous ages, some of them retaining it to the pres- 

 ent day, whilst others have worked out from it into partial civilization. 

 The American aborigines and the nations of Central Africa are still 

 living in the tribal state; and this is true also of the Malayan and 

 Australian families, where they have attained to a condition as far 

 advanced as this organization presupposes. There are Polynesian 

 nations still below the tribal state, amongst whom there is evidence of 

 the intermarriage of brothers and sisters until a comparatively recent 

 period. 



Island nations progress much slower than continental. Some of 

 them are still savage, and, if not absolutely stationary, are nearer the 

 primitive condition than any other portion of mankind. At the same 

 time their present state points to an anterior condition as far below it, 

 as all the centuries of their experience, with some degree of continuous 

 progress, necessarily implies. The Australians are savages. Belong- 

 ing to the Alforan race, they rank below the Malayan, the Polynesian, 

 and the Ganowanian. Their domestic institutions, therefore, must ap- 

 proach the primitive type as nearly as those of any other people. It 

 is for the last-named reason that the facts of their social organization, 

 about to be presented, possess a high degree of importance. 



Three memoranda, furnished by Mr. Fison, are hereto annexed, and 

 marked A, B, and C. They have been prepared with so much care 

 and precision that but little can be added to render them more com- 

 plete. Since, however, they were written at different times, it may 

 prove an advantage to the reader to have them presented in a form 



* A brief notice of this system is given in McLennan's " Primitive Marriage," 

 p. 1 18, and also in Tylor's " Early History of Mankind," p. 285. 



