No!^79r' ^^^' '^^^ RAMAH NAVAHO — KLUCKHOHN 365 



the old one or it had fallen into bad condition). In the case of other 

 family groups, however — and most especially in the case of those of 

 unfavorable economic circumstances — shifts are often sudden, fre- 

 quent, and major. A biological family will break off from one ex- 

 tended family unit and join another or will establish neolocal residence. 

 The combinations of orphaned children and isolated adults attached 

 to one or more biological families constantly break and re-form in 

 new ways. Moreover, it should be realized that some old widows 

 and widowers (these most of all) can hardly be said to have "a" resi- 

 dence at all. They move, with stays of varying duration, among the 

 homes of their children, primarily their daughters; but there are cases 

 where widowed fathers divide their time exclusively among the homes 

 of their sons. Most of the children of marriages dissolved by death 

 or divorce are likewise constantly shifting residence at intervals of 

 weeks, months, or years. In the case of divorce, children ordinarily 

 stay with the mother, but there are instances where they divide their 

 time between their parents, and a few where some of the children of 

 a broken marriage have resided consistently with the father. In the 

 case of death of the mother, children most often go to the mother's 

 mother or mother's sister, but sometimes alternate residence with one 

 of these and the father's mother, father's sister, father alone, or 

 father with new wife. 



Only one generalization as to residence is without exception in the 

 history of this group. In cases of sororal and stepdaughter polygyny, 

 each wife has her own hogan, but the hogans of the cowives are close 

 together. When men have married unrelated women, the hogans of 

 the wives are at some distance and in several cases have been 15 miles 

 or more apart. So far as other patterns of residence are concerned, 

 one can at best describe relative incidence. Thus one can say that 

 uxorilocal residence has always been the preferred form at Kamah, 

 but that there has always been a not negligible minority of virilocal 

 residences and at least a few bilocal and neolocal residences. The 

 proportion of virilocal and neolocal residences has slowly but steadily 

 mounted over the years. 



The only way to get a vivid and concrete picture of the variety of 

 residence and of composition of units is by summarizing the facts as 

 of June 1950.2^ Even here cautions must be specified. For example, 

 a family is not classified as bilocal unless approximately half the time 

 for the preceding year in question was spent at each residence. How- 



s' In the case of Individuals or families away from the Ramah area at this time (but who had not moved 

 away permanently) the facts are detailed as of the most recent residence of these individuals at Ramah. 

 School children are assigned the residences of their parents or the residence where they last stayed while at 

 home on vacations. There are some small discrepancies between the figures in this list and in table 7 

 because the residence survey was made early in the summer of 1950 and some deaths and other changes 

 occurred before September 1. 



747-014—66 24 



