ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 179 



actions of life, their actions must be regulated. Now, in early 

 stages of society, the chief things about which men disagree are the 

 relations of the sexes, personal authority, possession of property, 

 and conduct relating to mythical beings. Their laws therefore 

 relate, first, to marriage : and they avoid controversies in this re- 

 spect by establishing the law that individuals themselves shall have 

 no personal choice in the selection of mates, but that husbands shall 

 be furnished to wives by legal appointment through the officers or 

 rulers of the clan. Second, property rights are established by laws 

 which make certain classes of the property belong to the tribes, 

 other classes to the clans, and a very small part to individuals ; and 

 the property held by individuals cannot descend to other persons; 

 and to prevent controversy in relation to personal property, it is 

 established by law that every man's personal property shall be placed 

 with him in his grave. Third, personal authority is established on 

 seniority. The elder always has authority over the younger; and as 

 the people in this stage of society have not yet developed arithmetic 

 and records to such an extent that the ages of individuals are known, 

 a curious linguistic device is established by which relative age is 

 always known. Every man, woman, and child addresses every other 

 man, woman, and child by a kinship term which always indicates rela- 

 tive age : thus, there is no term for brother, but a man in speaking to 

 his brother always uses a term which signifies that he is an elder 

 brother or a younger brother, as the case may be ; and thus, through 

 the entire system of kinship terms in tribal society no man can speak 

 to another without addressing him by a term which, in its very 

 nature, claims or yields authority. The younger must always be 

 obedient to the elder. Fourth, laws involving conduct relating to 

 mythic beings are very diverse and multifarious, and cannot be fully 

 characterized. But one of the most essential of those laws concerns 

 behavior in relation to the tutelar deity. Each clan has its tutelar 

 deity and defends its honor, and punishes all impious acts or words 

 against its tutelar god. And in savage society no man may speak 

 disrespectfully of his neighbor's god, but may praise or defame his 

 own, as that god is propitious or angry. 



The general principle running through all these laws is this: 

 That in order that men may live together in peace and render each 

 other mutual assistance, controversy must be avoided ; and in con- 

 nection with this first principle, a second arises and runs tlirough 

 savage law, viz, when controversy has begun it must be terminated. 



