BROCK CHISHOLM 
own natural increase until it became a clan, composed perhaps 
of many families who would generally all be related through a 
common ancestry. The social conditions had changed little. 
The head of the clan still held absolute authority. He might be 
advised by the heads of families and by the current represen- 
tative of the clan’s god or gods, or he might himself hold that 
position too. Still the undivided loyalty of the members of the 
clan to its chief was a first moral principle and was not diluted 
by any concern for the welfare of anyone outside the clan. 
Inter-clan warfare again showed the advantages of numbers 
and, by voluntary formations of alliances of clans, by marriages 
between ruling families and by threats or capture, clans 
coalesced into tribes, which in some cases attained very con- 
siderable size. Apparently the authority of the head of the 
tribe was still absolute but probably tribal councils gradually 
assumed or were given increasing importance in decisions affect- 
ing the welfare of the tribe. Power of life and death and the 
right to absolute loyalty were still the normal prerogatives of 
the chief, but perhaps increasingly shared by the shaman or 
priest or the tribal council. The tribal gods increased in 
importance through the teaching of their representatives and 
always the change was in the direction of greater power for 
those representatives. ‘Taboo, dietary and social laws, threats 
of magic punishment and all available methods of mystification 
were used to establish and maintain control of the thinking of 
the people. The power of the chief and that of the priest 
commonly supported each other for their common benefit, 
though either might be eliminated by the other if he threatened 
to encroach too far on competing prerogatives. 
With increasing power in the hands of an individual, various 
grandiose titles were assumed and, where supported by the 
priesthood in the name of the god or gods, divine right and 
power were claimed, and enforced by military and/or religious 
threat. Murder, torture and mass slaughter were normal 
instruments for the extension of such power and the establish- 
ment of principalities and kingdoms. ‘There was also extensive 
appeal to the cupidity of individuals who could expect special 
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