318 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



systems of social privileges and obligations which 

 make them of the utmost importance in the regula- 

 tion of social life. The satisfactory settlement of 

 disputes concerning the acquisition and transmission 

 of property, and those arising out of land-tenure, 

 marriage, divorce, etc., is impossible without a 

 knowledge of these systems of relationship. Until 

 lately the problems connected with relationship have 

 been but little studied and have been widely mis- 

 understood even by professed anthropologists, while 

 they have been almost wholly ignored by adminis- 

 trators. I have myself been told by a magistrate 

 of special experience and knowledge that in the 

 courts he always passed over as quickly as possible 

 questions involving a knowledge of relationship, 

 and this was in a place where the social obliga- 

 tions connected with relationship are perhaps more 

 important than in any other country with which we 

 are acquainted. 



Among ourselves the social obligations connected 

 with relationship are relatively so few and simple 

 that it is difficult adequately to illustrate the 

 enormity of such ignorance. It may be feebly 

 realised if we imagine England being governed 

 by an alien people who are trying to administer 

 justice in accordance with our own laws and institu- 

 tions, but yet do not take the trouble to ascertain 

 the meaning of such terms as father and son, and 

 suppose them to apply to classes of persons as wide 

 as those of the classificatory system. Small wonder 



