366 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



and, in order to gain this end, will receive permission to take up resi- 

 dence with it. It is immediately apparent that the new enlarged 

 village community, provided it is permanent, will have increased in 

 complexity of structure. Their adherence to their respective traditions 

 will be such that neither of the former village communities will give 

 up its peculiar set of privileges, so that a twofold division of the com- 

 munity, as accentuated by these privileges, will persist. If we 

 imagine this process to have occurred several times, we will gradually 

 arrive at a community which is subdivided into several smaller units 

 which we may call septs or bands, or perhaps even clans, each of which 

 has its distinct stock of legendary traditions and privileges exercised 

 by its titled representatives and whose former connection with a defi- 

 nite locality is still remembered. The growth of the village com- 

 munity does not need, of course, to have taken place only in this 

 fashion. Many other factors may be at work. The group added to 

 the original community may be the survivors of a conquered village 

 who are given a subordinate place. Furthermore, a member of an- 

 other tribe or community that has married into the community may, 

 if he (or she) has sufîtîcient prestige, be able to assert the higher rank 

 that he (she) brings with him (her) and found a new line of descent 

 which will take its place side by side with those already represented. 

 We see, then, a number of ways in which the typical division of a 

 tribe into clans, such as we find among the Haida, may be expected 

 to originate. Such a clan, from the point of view of West Coast 

 conditions, may be defined as a group of kinsmen, real or supposed, 

 who form one of the subdivisions of a village community and who 

 inherit a common stock of traditions associated with a definite locality, 

 the original home of the group. 



Clans in this sense we have among the southern tribes that we 

 have enumerated; but it is not until we reach the more northern 

 tribes, such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, that the clan be- 

 comes a clearly defined and perfectly solidified unit. This is brought 

 about primarily by the restriction of inheritance. Among the Nootka 

 Indians, for instance, it is possible to inherit privileges in both the 

 male and female lines, preference, where possible, being given to the 

 former. This being the case, it is often hard to see exactly to which 

 sept or clan a person properly belongs, and the decision is generally 

 based on the character of the privileges that are transmitted to him, 

 for, as we have seen, a privilege is always connected with a definite 

 locality, sept, or original village community. In other words, a 

 person steps into certain rights to which he has a claim by descent, 

 and in the exercise of these becomes identified with the particular 

 sept or clan with which they are associated. As the septs have their 



