914 



REPORT — 1884. 



' t 



is entitled to more tliaii erne, and if successful he wins the woman ; and Ly sava;i, 

 law controversy must tlitu end. All three of tlieso forms are observed amonj,' t!i. 

 tribes of North America, and th(!y are methods by which selection by legal appoint- 

 ment is developed inlo selection by personal choice. Sometimes these latter form- 

 largely pi-evail, and tliey come to be regulated more and more, until at last thiv 

 become more forms, and personal choice prevails. 



When personal choice thus prevails, the old regulation that n man may not 

 mari'y within his own ^n'oup still exists, and selection within that group is incest, 

 which is always punished with great .severity. The group of persons within whicli 

 marriage is incest is always a liigidy artificial group. Hence, in early society, 

 incest laws do not recognise physiological conditif)ns, but only social conditions. 



The above outline will make clear the following statement, that endogamy and 

 exogamy, as originally defined by Maclennan, do not exist. livery savage man i- 

 exogamous with relation to the class or clan to wliich he may belong, and he is ti. 

 ft certain extent endogamous in relation to the tribe to which he belongs ; that is. 

 ho must marry within that tribe, but in all cases, if his marriage is the result u( 

 legal appointment, he is greatly restricted in his marriage rights, and the selectinn 

 must be mtide within some limited group. Exogamy and endogamy, as tlms 

 defined, are integral parts of the same law, and the tribes of mankind cannot, h 

 classed in two great groups, one practising endogamy and the otlier exogamy. 



The law of exogamy is universal. Among all peoples there is a group, larger 

 or smaller, and natural or artificial, within which marriage is prohibited. Tin 

 terms ' exogamy and ' endogamy ' are misleading, and should be discarded. 



5. 



Report of the Committee for defining the Facial Characteristics of th/^ 

 Haces and Princijml Crosses in the British Isles. — See Reports, p. 294. 



SATUJfBAY, AUGUST 30. 

 The Sectio'-i did not meet. 



MOXDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



4 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. BeinarJis on the Gtistoms and Laiiguarje of thn Iroquois. 

 By Mrs, Erminie A, Smith." 



The literal meaning of many Irofinois nouns is extremely interesting, Tht 

 names of animals in very many cases refer to some peculiarity of the object, Tiit 

 goat and some other animals are named from their odour, birds generally froii. 

 their note ; nearly all trees are named from some quality ; tears, translate as eye- 

 juice; sugar, as tree-juice. The feelings and passions are even more strikingly 

 descri])tive : a thing that is wonderful is scalp-raising ; anything tempting, alluring, 

 or captivating, is said ' to imhook the mind.' The ])cculiarity of different Avords 

 requiring unlike pronoinis for the same person and numlier, and the great number 

 of these pronouns have greatly puzzled most students of Indian languages, severtil 

 fif whom have stated that there are but two genders, a noble and an ignoble; IMrs. 

 Smith, however, brings evidence to prove the existence of three genders in tliesf 

 dialects. 



2. On the Bcvelopnent of Industrial and Ornamental Art among the Zuvif: 

 of Neiv Mexico. By ¥. H. Cl'SHINg. 



The author brought forward evidence, linguistic and otherwise, to prove tlm 

 descent of the Zufiis from the Pueblo Indians. Tiie word Pueblo was !i])plied to a 

 nation who lived in communal dwelliii;:s. The art of pottery was jn-tu'tised in tlif 

 Pueblo district to a very great extent, and the author gave an account of t!:i 



