kL SIM n Ml 



lived in a communit) hou-e whidi was long and 



OW, with compartment- lor eadi family of tin- dan. 

 'I'll.- dan dominated the long house because it was 

 .e dan Imuso, ami the flan wan tin* most ii 

 taut Ixxly in local affairs. Since tin- dans were 



woman in tin- long house was the 

 .n win. ran the house with supreme authority over 

 all its inmate- in dome-tic atfair-. It' a n n of- 



(1, he was thrust out by the order of the house 

 matron. All a. hilts, men and women, had equal voi 

 the clan coundl, hut in tin* tribal council women had no 

 voice. Tims we see that among the Iroquois In<lians 

 the : of woman was on an equality with that of 



man. The ; notion that among primi 



peoples woman had a degraded position is not borne 

 out h\ the >tudy of many tribal groups. Among the 

 Iroquois clans there was g< 'ion of the 



ol.liLration not to marr\ within the dan. That i-. men of 

 the Bear clan must seek for wives, women of the Turtle 

 clan or of some other clan, they nm-t not marry women 

 of their own clan, the I',. ; U dan. 'Phis usage is con- 

 nected with the i.h-a that all persons bearing the same 

 crest, or tot- a name, are related by blood anl 



ii-riaire I. .-t \\.-.-n them i- tabooed. A clan which 

 follow- the custom of requiring it- members to in 

 individuals in another clan is called an exogamous clan. 

 The fa called exogamy. 



further unit of organi/ation in the structure of 

 Iroquois society must be mentioned. It is the jmratry. 

 The Iro|uois tribes had a total of thirty-eiirht dans, and 

 in four of these tribes the dans were combined into a 

 of eight phratries. The phratry was a brother 

 hood of clans, probably originally one clan, which, be- 



