424 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



tended to break down the classes, and thus give to every male the right 

 to marry any female in any tribe but his own, which, we have seen, is 

 the law of the tribal organization in its ultimate form. When in its final 

 stage it necessarily assures a greatly increased tendency to marriage be- 

 tween single pairs, leading to the establishment of the barbarian family, 

 with a great curtailment of the range of the conjugal privilege. The 

 line of progress among the Kamilaroi was evidently from classes into 

 tribes, followed by a tendency to overthrow the classes, and to render 

 the tribe, instead of the class, the unit of organization. In this move- 

 ment the overshadowing system of cohabitation was the resisting 

 element. It is the first instance in which we have been able to look 

 far down into the incipient stages of the tribal organization, and even 

 through it upon an anterior condition so truly archaic as an organiza- 

 tion of society upon sex. It seems to afford a glimpse at the absolutely 

 primitive state of man. The tribe, as it progressed toward its ultimate 

 form, seems to have advanced, aequo pede, with the curtailment of the 

 range of the conjugal privilege, which, among the Kamilaroi, still verges 

 upon promiscuity. The inference is plain, that ages upon ages passed 

 away whilst the tribal organization, even among the most highly endowed 

 races, was passing through its successive phases. Among the Austra- 

 lian aborigines it is still in a rudimentary state, although possessing the 

 more prominent characteristics. They might not have effected the 

 overthrow of the classes for thousands of years to come, had they re- 

 mained undiscovered and undisturbed in their insular homes ; whilst 

 more favored continental nations, commencing in a similar condition, 

 have first advanced this organization through its successive stages, and 

 then worked their way out from it into civilization. It seems probable 

 that the tribes among the Fijians and Micronesian Islanders, where the 

 totemic system is known to exist, will be found in the same transitional 

 stage. The innovations described were clearly in the nature of reform- 

 atory movements to reduce the excessive amount of in-and-in marriage 

 among consanguinei. Facts such as these illustrating the successive 

 stages of development of the tribal organization are of the highest 

 importance and of peculiar value. Marriage and the family are in- 

 volved at every stage of this progress, and the growth of the idea of each 

 must be traced through all the shades of man's experience in the tribal 

 state, before the conception of the barbarian family is reached, which 

 is then but the family in its second stage. 



It must be admitted that the Kamilaroi classes are older than the 



