TRIBAL SOCIETY 239 



were known as cognati? Among the Hindoos the clan is 

 called the Gotra and among the Arabs the Hayy. Among 

 the ancient Irish the clan was variously called the Tuath, 

 Cinel, or Clann. 



As only incomplete records come down to us of social 

 life among these historic peoples in the period when 

 they were organized in clans and tribes on the pattern 

 of ethnic organization in general we shall find it more 

 profitable to study primitive society as it exists to-day, 

 and from this study, attempt to reconstruct a picture of 

 what social relations were among the men of the pre- 

 historic period. 



Certain American Indian tribal groups, especially the 

 tribes of the Iroquois confederacy and certain North 

 Pacific Coast tribes, and the native tribes of Australia, 

 are fairly typical of important characteristics in the life 

 of primitive peoples. We will, therefore, study these 

 primitive groups to gain a picture of social organization 

 among uncivilized peoples. 



The Iroquois tribes inhabited a region including the 

 greater part of the present states of New York, Penn- 

 sylvania and Ohio, and portions of Canada north of 

 Lake Ontario. It is thought that they originally came 

 from beyond the Mississippi, making their way to the 

 valley of the St. Lawrence and thence into central New 

 York. The five tribes of the Iroquois people were the 

 Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. 

 They resided in villages which were usually surrounded 

 by stockades, and subsisted upon fish and game, and the 

 products of a limited horticulture. In numbers they did 



Justinian, Institutes, Lib. I, xv. i, Cf. Gaius, i. 156; also Morgan, op. 

 tit., pp. 285-308. 



10 Ginncll, The Brehon Laws, pp. 102-109, 



