TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



905 



luiidifying roots or words by the insertion of a letter or syllable, somewhat as the 

 Dakota lan<ruft)are inserts a pronoun within tiie verb-root it.self,or as that remarkable 

 language, the Cliocta, niters its verbs by insertions of a still more violent character. 

 Ai'ain, tlie distinction between the inclusive and exclusive pronoun we, accordinp: 

 as it means ' you and I' or 'they and I,' &c. (the want of which is perhaps a 

 defect in luifrlish), is as familiar to tin- .Mauri as to the Ojibwa. Whether the 

 languages of the American tribes be rcfrarded as derived from Asia or as separate 

 (levelopment", tiieir Ion;.' existence on the American continent seems nnquestion- 

 (,ble. Had they been tiie tongues of tribes come within a short time by liehrini^'a 

 Straits, we should have expected them to show clear connection with the tongues 

 :>f their kindred left behind in A«;ia, just as the Lapp in I'lurope, whose ancestors 

 Live been separated for thousands of years from tlie ancestors of tiie Ostyak or the 

 lurk, still shows in his speech the traces of their remote kinship. The problem 

 !.)W tribes so similar in physi<al type and culture as the Alg-onquins, Iroquois, 

 Noiix, atul Athapascans, siiould adjoin one another, yet speakinp languages so 

 rpiirate, is only soluble by influences which have had a long period of time to 

 wrk in. 



The comparison of peoples according to their social framework of family and 



;:ilie has been assuming more and more importance since it was brought forward 



IvBiichol'en, McLennan, and Morgan. One of its broadest distinctions comes into 



;;.';7 within the Dominion of Canada. The V^squimnux are patriarchal, the father 



i«:iiig ht'ad of the family, and descent and inheritance following the male line. 



But the hidian triltes further scmth are largely matriarchal, reckoning descent 



;iton the father's but the mother's side. In fact, it was through b'coming an 



ilopted Iroquois that Morgan became aware of this system, so foreign to l-'uropean 



lieas, and which he supposed at first to be an isolated peculiarity. No less a 



Mton than Herodotus had fallen into the same mistake over two thousand years 



i.'),when he thought the Lykians, in taking their names from tiieir mothers, were 



alike all other men. It is now, however, an accepted matter of anthrojiology, 



•iat m HerodotMs' time nations of the civili-sed world Iiad passed tlirough this 



latriarciial stage, as appears from, the survivals of it retained in the midst of 



;iiii' newer patriarchal institutions. For instance, among the Arabs to this day, 



ii'jngly patriarchal as their society is in most respects, there survives that 



ist matriarchal idea that one's nearest relative is not one's father but one's 



laternal uncle ; he is bound to his si-ster's children by a 'closer and holier tie' 



aan paternity, as Tacitus says of tlie same conception among the ancient Germans. 



Uliviously great interest attaches to any accounts of existing tribes whidi preserve 



irusthe explanation of such social piienomena. Some of the most instructive of 



fee are too new to have yet found their way into our treatises on earh' 



■'•titutions : they are accounts lately published by Dutch olHcials among the non- 



lUamised clans of Sumatra and Java. G. A. Wilkeii, 'Over de Verwant.schap 



•; het Iluwelijks en Erfreclit bij de Volken van den Indischen Archipel,' summa- 



|^>fstlie account put on record by Van llasselt as to the life of the Malays of the 



I Padaiij? Highlands of Mid-Sumatra, wiio are known to represent an early Malay 



dilation. Among these people not only kinship, but habitation follows alisolutely 



i' female line, so that the numerous dwelleis in one great house are all connected 



''descent from one mother, one generation above another, children, then mothers 



ti maternal uncles and aunts, then grandmothers and maternal great-uncles and 



■"■at-aunts, itc. There are in each district several ««A:m or mother-clans, h'tween 



ifms born in which marriage is forbidden. Here then appear the two well- 



|wwn rules of female descent and exogamy, but now we come into view of the 



^Mrkable state of society, that tiiough 'marriage exists, it does not form the 



hwsehold. The woman remains in tlie maternal hou?e she was born in, and the man 



l^niainsia his ; his position is that of an authorised visitor; if he will, he may 



I sue over and help her in the rice-field, but he need not ; over the children he has 



ho control whatever, and were he to presume to order or chastise them, their 



■Jtural guardian, the mother's brother {matmifc), would resent it as an affront. 



jllit'law of female descent and ita connected rules have as yet been mostly studied 



haong the native Americans and Australians, where they have evidently under- 



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