496 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



permissible for oue and tlie same organiza- 

 tion at different times. The whole matter is 

 cleared up only when we understand the 

 mode of purchase, which is collective rather 

 than individual. A group of young boys 

 playing together and forming approximately 

 an age-group are constituted into a definite 

 body by jointly passing through the initial 

 social experience of buying the lowest 

 grade. By simply continuing together at 

 every successive purchase, they form a per- 

 manent union of age-mates, and since all 

 groups follow the same course of action, the 

 association of organizations with bodies of 

 coevals is quite intelligible. 



The Plains Indian age-societies are espe- 

 cially interesting because of their analogies 

 to institutions of remote areas, which, how- 

 ever, merely serve to throw into relief the 

 distinctive peculiarities of the American 

 I)lienomena. Thus, in Melanesia all tlie men 

 are ranged about a number of fireplaces 

 in a clubhouse, each fire being associated 

 with a distinct grade of the order. Each 

 degree is purchasable and accordingly the 

 series seems comparable to the Ilidatsa 

 scheme. Yet it differs fundamentally, be- 

 cause in Melanesia the buying is a purely 

 individual affair, so that most men never 

 advance beyond the middle ranks, while only 

 the especially wealthy and fortunate reach 

 the top. In other words, here there is grad- 

 ing with purchase but no suggestion of agc- 

 societies. On the other hand, the Masai of 

 East Africa have age-companies formed dur- 

 ing the tribal initiation ceremonies. The 

 principle is really very similar to the Hi- 

 datsa one, for here too the organization of 

 a permanent social unit results from a joint 

 social experience. But the nature of that 

 experience is very different from that of the 

 Ilidatsa, and more particularly, there is no 

 trace of the element of purchase which fig- 

 ures so largely among the North American 

 Indians. In short, there is merely analogy 

 not homology and the Plains Indian age- 

 societies remain an institution sui generis. 



The data collected on the Plains Indian 

 age-organizations have a direct bearing on 

 certain sociological theories that have fig- 

 ured prominently in ethnological literature. 

 The late Dr. Heinrich Schurtz, of Bremen, 

 assumed that community of age was the 

 earliest bond that united men into definite 

 societies and that all other forms of organi- 

 zation, such as societies based on religious 

 motives, came later in human evolution. At 

 the same time he conceived the early divi- 

 sion of male society to be according to three 

 distinct groups, such as boys, married men, 

 and old men. This was a very plausible 

 assumption since such a rough classification 



miglit be made even in primitive times, 

 while a more minute division would seem 

 improbable with people who do not reckon 

 their ages by years. The Hidatsa phenomena 

 show that refined classification is quite pos- 

 sible at a primitive level. All that is needed 

 is that a group of boys should be consoli- 

 dated by jointly acquiring a certain status 

 and that this practice should become fixed 

 for succeeding groups of boys. Then the 

 total number of companies in a given tribe 

 Avill simply depend on the number of groups 

 which have passed through the initial ex- 

 perience. Among the Plains Indians the 

 permanence of the bond is emphasized by 

 the fact that the same group of individuals 

 which purchased the Stone Hammer mem- 

 bership will later buy the Kit Fox, Dog, 

 and all other organizations. But this is not 

 essential, since the Masai have permanent 

 age classes with definite privileges but only 

 a single social experience, the initiation cere- 

 mony, through which all tribesmen have to 

 l)ass. The indispensable thing is thus 

 merely that the first welding together should 

 establish a permanent bond of union. 



We can, therefore, understand how as 

 many as ten or more age-groups could read- 

 ily develop in a tribe without any conscious 

 subdivision of the whole population. It is 

 also plain that age plays an important part, 

 since it is the bond that unites the boys be- 

 fore they collectively acquire the status of 

 the lowest grade. Among the Plains In- 

 dians, the factor that unites individuals into 

 a group is reallj' age, as Dr. Schurtz con- 

 tended, but the factor that determined that 

 the group so constituted should become the 

 possessor of certain ceremonial and social 

 prerogatives, w-as purchase. 



A very important problem is whether the 

 age-grading is the earliest bond of organi- 

 zations in human society. The Plains In- 

 dian phenomena definitely contravene this 

 hypothesis. While it is true that some of 

 the organizations seem to have originated 

 among the tribes with graded schemes, 

 other societies certainly developed else- 

 where and were secondarily united with the 

 age series. There can be no doubt that in 

 some instances admission is based on purely 

 social considerations regardless of years, 

 while in others a certain form of religious 

 experience shared by a group of men consti- 

 tutes the sole bond of union. In short, age 

 is certainly a real force in the evolution of 

 tribal societies, but it is far from being the 

 only socializing factor and there is no rea- 

 son to think that it preceded all others, least 

 of all, in North America, where organiza- 

 tions not based on age far outnumber those 

 that are. 



