224 Morgans Theory. 



human family is represented by three great sys 

 tems of consanguinity, which he designated the 

 Malayan, the Turanian, and the Aryan. These 

 systems rest, not upon nature, but upon marriage ; 

 so that, given the system, we may infer the form 

 of marriage. It is assumed that each relationship, 

 as recognized in language, is what at one time act 

 ually existed under a certain form of marriage. 

 The Aryan system is descriptive that is, it makes 

 the relationship of each person specific (as, e.g.^ 

 brother s son, father s brother s son). The Ma 

 layan and Turanian systems are dassijicatory 

 that is, they arrange in categories according to 

 generation (&quot; brothers,&quot; e.g. 7 including not only 

 my own, but the sons of my father s brothers, and 

 &quot; sons &quot; including not only my own, but my 

 brothers also). 



A system of consanguinity is naturally slower 

 to change than the form of the family whose re 

 lationships it expresses. And thus it is that the 

 Malayan system of consanguinity and affinity, 

 outliving for unremembered centuries the mar 

 riage customs in which it originated, remains to 

 attest the fact that such a family existed when 

 the system was formed. This system, though its 

 raison d etre is gone, survives in daily use among 

 the Hawaiians and other Polynesian tribes. Un- 



