MOTHERRIGHT 293 



of kinship exists, but it has not yet become fully 

 organised as we understand it. Relationships are still 

 described by terms which include many others than 

 those we recognise by the names we are obliged to 

 employ as equivalents. Thus the term used by the 

 western islanders of Torres Straits for brother, tukoiab, 

 is not only the reciprocal term used by brothers for 

 one another and by sisters for one another ; it is also 

 used " for all men of the same generation on the 

 father's side, corresponding to first second and third 

 cousins, etc., through the male side, for all men of the 

 same generation in the mother's clan, for all men of 

 the same generation in the father's mother's clan, for 

 the sons of a brother and sister, for the sons of two 

 sisters." x The term wadwam had a corresponding 

 extension. It must not be supposed that the con- 

 sciousness of kinship has not outrun these terms. 

 Men are aware that those whom we should describe 

 as their " own brothers " are nearer to them than 

 those whom we call their third cousins. And doubt- 

 less the rights and duties belonging to a tukoiab or a 

 wadwam are emphasised in the case of these nearer 

 kin. Still the others are by no means excluded from 

 such rights and duties ; they may claim the former 

 and be called on to perform the latter. Neither the 

 language nor the law has yet succeeded in defining 

 degrees of relationship more closely. We are accord- 

 ingly warranted in believing that both language and 

 law represent a stage in the evolution of society when 

 the consciousness of the kinship was vaguer than it 

 has since become. 



It is always necessary to bear in mind the differences 

 1 Rivers, Torres Sir. Rep. v. 130. 



