486 



SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



My father's brothers are still my fathers, and my mother's sisters are still my 

 mothers, as in the Malayan, and for the reasons there given. The tribal organiza- 

 tion does not prevent my father and his brothers from cohabiting with each other's 

 wives, nor my mother and her sisters from cohabiting with each other's husbands. 



7. All the children of these several uncles and aunts are my cousins, 

 lleasons as in 5 and 6. Since they cannot be my brothers and sisters for the 



reasons named, they must be placed in a more remote relationship. 



But the children of brothers are brothers and sisters to each other, and so are 

 the children of sisters, as in the Malayan, and for the reasons there given. 



All the children of my male cousins, myself a male, are my nephews and nieces ; 

 and all the children of my female cousins are my sons and daughters. 



Such is the classification amongst the Dravidian nations of South India. Unless 

 I cohabit with all my female cousins, and am excluded from cohabitation with the 

 wives of all my male cousins, these relationships cannot be explained from the 

 nature of descents. In the Ganowanian family this classification is reversed ; the 

 children of my male cousins, myself a male, are my sons, and daughters, and of 

 my female cousins are my nephews and nieces. These are explainable from the 

 principles, and from the analogy of the system. It is a singular fact that the 

 deviation upon these relationships is the only one of any importance between the 

 Tamil and the Seneca-Iroquois, Avhich in all probability has a logical explanation 

 of some kind. If it is attributable to the slight variation upon the privilege of 

 barbarism above indicated a singular solution of the difterence in the two systems 

 is thereby afforded. 



8. All the children of these nephcAvs and nieces are my grandchildren, 

 lleasons as in 2. 



9. All the children of these collateral sons and daughters are my grandchildren. 

 It is the same in Malayan, and for the reasons there given. 



10. All the brothers and sisters of my grandfather, and of my grandmother, are 

 my grandfathers and grandmothers. 



Reasons. As to the brothers of my grandfather, and the sisters of my grand- 

 mother, the reasons are as given in tlie Malayan, where the relationsliips are the 

 same. In the other cases they must be sought in the analogy of the system. 



The same course of investigation and of explanation may be applied to the more 

 remote collateral lines, and to several of the marriage relationships, with substan- 

 tially similar results ; but the solution of the origin of that part of the classificatory 

 system which is distinctly Turanian has been carried sufficiently far for my present 

 purpose. All of the indicative relationships have been explained, and shown to be 

 those which actually existed in the communal family as it was constituted under 

 the tribal organization, and the other prevailing customs and institutions. If the 

 progressive conditions of society, during the ages of barbarism, from which this 

 solution is drawn are partly hypothetical, the system itself, as thus explained, is 

 found to be simple and natural, instead of an arbitrary and artificial creation of 

 human intelligence. The probable existence of the series of customs and institu- 

 tions, so far as their existence is assumed, is greatly strengthened by the simplicity 

 of the solution which they afford of the origin of the classificatory system in two 

 great stages of development. 



