OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 473 



The descriptive and the classificatory systems of relationship cannot both be 

 explained from the nature of descents, and as arising by natural suggestion, if a 

 similar condition of society is assumed to have existed at the time of their forma- 

 tion. The same argument which proved one of them to be true to the nature of 

 descents would demonstrate the untruthfulness of the other. And yet there are 

 grounds for believing that both can be explained from the nature of descents by 

 recognizing, not improbable, conditions of society suggestive of their respective 

 forms. If they can be thus explained, the two systems will rise into striking prcA 

 minence as domestic institutions, since they will be found to represent and embody 

 the vast and varied experience of mankind through the unrecorded ages of barbarism. 



The descriptive system can be readily shown to be in accordance with the nature 

 of descents, as they now exist, with marriage between single pairs. The very 

 method by which the generations of mankind are reproduced, through marriage, 

 creates a lineal line consisting of such persons as are derived immediately one froiriy 

 the other, proceeding from parent to child, in an infinite series. Each person in 

 this line becomes in turn the centre of a group of kindred, the stationary EjO, 

 who represents and sustains to his lineal and collateral kindred, at one and thS 

 same time, every relationship which can possibly exist. Out of the lineal line 

 emerge the several collateral lines, one beyond the other, each consisting of branches. 

 The first consists of the brothers and sisters of Ego and their descendants ; the 

 second of the brothers and sisters of the father, and of the brothers and sisters of 

 the mother of Ego, and of their respective descendants ; and beyond these there are 

 as many other collateral lines as there are ancestors of Ego ; each leaving brothers 

 and sisters and descendants. It is thus made obvious that consanguine! are bound 

 together in virtue of their descent from common ancestors ; and that the manner 

 of the relationship can be expressed by ascending from Ego to the common ancestor, 

 counting each person a degree, and then by descending, in the same manner 

 through the collateral line, to the person whose relationship is sought. The 

 descriptions of persons thus made produce the descriptive system of relationship. 

 It also indicates a numerical system founded upon the units of separation between 

 Ego and his several kinsmen. A classification of consanguinei, into lineal and 

 collateral lines, is thus taught from the nature of descents, as well as the perpetual 

 divergence of the latter from the former ; followed by a decrease in the value of the 

 relationship of each person as he recedes from Ego. A system both numerical and 

 descriptive thus arises from marriage between single pairs which nature may be 

 said to teach to mankind with unerring certainty. It gives a classification of 

 persons into lines, with an indication of the value of each relationship in numerical 

 degrees ; but no classification of persons into grades, with an indication of the rela- 

 tionship of each in the abstract. The discrimination of collateral relationships in the 



most general sense that nations can be said to live in similar conditions of society; thus, the stone 

 age, which antedates agriculture and the possession of domestic animals, necessitated and developed 

 a mode of life which led to the simultaneous invention, in disconnected areas, of similar implements 

 and contrivances to answer similar wants. In this comprehensive sense, the one in which the 

 phrase is used, two peoples may be said to live in similar conditions of society. 



60 April, 1870. 



