298 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



A large number of the aboriginal peoples on the 

 mainland of North America reckoned descent in the 

 female line. Conspicuous among them were the 

 Iroquois. The Iroquoian gens or kin was ruled by 

 chiefs of two grades distinguished by Morgan as 

 sachem and common chiefs. The sachem was the 

 official head of the gens and was hereditary. The 

 actual occupant of the office was elected by the 

 adult members of the gens, male and female, " an 

 Own brother or the son of an own sister being most 

 likely to be preferred." In the same way, when a 

 man died, though all his clansmen seem to have had a 

 legal right to share his effects, in practice those effects 

 were appropriated by his nearest relations within the 

 gens ; that is to say, his own brothers and sisters 

 and maternal uncles divided them. A woman's pro- 

 perty was taken by her children and sisters, to the 

 exclusion of her brothers. 1 These rules point to the 

 fact that the family was in course of evolution within 

 \htgens. If so, an authority was probably developing 

 within that family distinct from the general authority 

 of the sachem, though doubtless subordinate to it. 

 A report made by an official for Indian affairs and 

 including two of the Iroquoian tribes with tribes 

 belonging to the Hurons and Algonkins states that 

 in marriages the brothers and uncles of the woman 

 on the maternal side are consulted as to the proposed 

 match, "and sometimes the father; but this is only a 

 compliment, as his approbation or opposition is of 

 no avail." 2 Another account, however, attributes the 

 arrangement of the marriage to the mother. 3 Morgan 



1 Morgan, Anc. Soc. 64, 71,76. 2 McLennan, Studies, ii. 339. 



3 Kohler, 60, citing Morgan, League, 321. Morgan says that 



