334 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



loni;' periods. We conclude, therefore, that tlie clan was originally a 

 village community, which, owing to changes in number or for pur- 

 poses of defense, left their old home and joined some other community, 

 retaining, however, to a certain degree its independence. This corre- 

 sponds exactly to the social organization of the Salishau tribes of the 

 southern portion of Vancouver Island, and of all the coast tribes of 

 Washington and Oregon. The simple division into village communi- 

 ties which seems to have been the prevalent type of society along a 

 considerable portion of the Pacific Coast has, among the Kwakiutl, 

 undergone such changes that a number of tribes which are divided 

 into clans have originated. 



While it would be natural that in tlie former stage the child should 

 be considered a member of the village community to which his father or 

 mother belonged, we may expect disturbances in the organization which 

 developed among the Kwakiutl. Among the village communities of 

 Oregon, Washington, and southern Vancouver Island the child belongs 

 to the father's village, where the married couple generally live, and it 

 seems that among many of these tribes the villages are exogamic. 

 Among the Kwakiutl the clans are also exogamic, and certain privi- 

 leges are inherited in the paternal line, while a much larger number 

 are obtained by marriage. The existence of the foruier class suggests 

 that the organization must have been at one time a ])urely paternal 

 one. Three causes seem to have disturbed the original organization — 

 the development of the more complex organization mentioned above, 

 the influence of the northern tribes which have a purely maternal 

 organization, and the development of legends referring to the origin of 

 the clans which are analogous to similar traditions of the northern 

 groups of tribes. Taking up the last-named point first, we find that 

 each clan claims a certain rank and certain privileges which are based 

 upon the descent and adventures of its ancestor. These privileges, if 

 originally belonging to a tribe which at one time has been on the paternal 

 stage, Avould hardly have a tendency to deviate from the law govern- 

 ing this stage. If they have, however, originated under the influence 

 of a people which is on a maternal stage, an abnormal development seems 

 likely. In the north a woman's rank and imvileges always descend 

 upon her children. Practically the same result has been brought about 

 among the Kwakiutl, but in a manner which suggests that a people 

 with paternal institutions has adapted its social laws to these customs. 

 Here the woman brings as a dower her father's position and privileges 

 to her husband, who, however, is not allowed to use them himself, but 

 acquires them for the use of his son. As the woman's fatlier, on his 

 part, has acquired his privileges in the same manner through his mother, 

 a purely female law of descent is secured, although only through the 

 medium of the husband. It seems to my mind that this exceedingly 

 intricate law, which will be described in detail in the course of this 

 paper, can not be explained in any other way than as an adaptation of 



