472 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



of limited practice, and with promiscuous intercourse substantially eradicated, the 

 classificatory system of relationship still exists in full vigor in a large portion of 

 the human family, ages upon ages after the sequence of customs and institutions 

 in which it apparently originated have ceased to exercise any influence upon its 

 form or upon its preservation. This system as it now stands is seen to magnify the 

 bond of consanguinity into stupendous proportions, and to use it as an organic in- 

 strument for the formation of a communal family upon the broadest scale of num- 

 bers. Differences in the degree of nearness are made to yield to the overmastering 

 strength of the kindred tie. Its generalizations traverse the natural lines of 

 descent, as they now exist through the marriage of single pairs, disregard equalities 

 in the degree of nearness of related persons, and create relationships in contra- 

 vention of those actually existing. There are upwards of twenty of these particu- 

 lars, each of which develops a distinct idea, all uniting in the formation of a 

 coherent intelligible and systematic plan of consanguinity. From the excessive 

 and intricate specializations embodied in the system it might be considered diffi- 

 cult of practical use ; but it is not the least singular of its characteristics that it is 

 'complicated without obscurity, diversified without confusion, and understood and 

 applied with the utmost facility. With such a number of distinct ideas associated 

 together in definite relations, a system has been created which must be regarded as 

 a domestic institution in the highest sense of this expression. No other can 

 properly characterize a structure the framework of which is so complete, and the 

 details of which are so rigorously adjusted. 



III. Can the origin of the descriptive system be accounted for and explained 

 from the nature of descents, and upon the principle of natural suggestion, on the 

 assumption of the existence of the state of marriage between single pairs I 



Natural suggestions are those which arise spontaneously in the mind with the 

 exercise of ordinary intelligence. As suggestions from nature they might spring 

 from internal sources or from the subject; from external sources or from the 

 object ; or from both united. 



In the formation of a plan of consanguinity reflection upon the nature of 

 descents, where society recognized the marriage relation, would reveal the method 

 of nature in evolving generations of mankind from common ancestors, through a 

 series of marriages, and thus develop the suggestions of nature from the subject. 

 On the other hand, the uses of a system, when formed, would reach outward upon 

 the condition and wants of society and induce reflection upon the objects to be 

 gained. Whatever deliverances may thus be supposed to come from the voice of 

 nature they are necessarily uniform in all time and to all men, the conditions of 

 society being similar. 1 



1 The phrase, "similar conditions of society," which has become technical, is at least extremely 

 vague. It is by no means easy to conceive of two peoples, in disconnected areas, living in conditions 

 precisely similar. The means of subsistence would vary, and this would create diversity in the mode 

 of life. But we may regard the condition of agricultural nations as similar, as well as that of pas- 

 toral nations ; and going back of these, the same may be said of such nations as subsist by fishing 

 and hunting. Their domestic institutions, however, might be materially different. It is only in the 



