200 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [ktii. a.vn. 15 



The fundamental i)rinciples of tribal organization through kinship 

 have been formulated by rowell; they are as follows:' 



I. A body of kiuilred constituting a distinct body politic is divided into groups, 

 the males into groups of brothers and the females into groups of sisters, on distinc- 

 tions of generations, regardless of degrees of consanguinity ; and the kinship terms 

 used express relative age. In civilized society kinships are classified on distinctions 

 of sex, distinctions of generations, and distinctions arising from degrees of nmsan. 

 guinity. 



II. When des<eut is in the female line, the brother-group consists of natal brothers, 

 together with all the matertcrate male cousins of whatever degree. Tims mother's 

 Bisters' sons and mother's mother's sisters' daughters' sous, etc, are included in a 

 group with natal brothers. In like manner the sister-group is (composed of natal 

 sisters, together with all inaterterato female cousins of whatever degree. 



III. When descent is iu the male line, the brother-group is composed of natal 

 brothers, together with all patruato male cousins of whatever degree, and the sister- 

 group is comjiosed of natal sisters, together with all patruate female cousins of 

 whatever degree. 



IV. The son of a member of a brother-group calls each one of the group, father; 

 the father of a member of a brother-group calls each oue of the group, son. Thus a 

 father-group is coextensive with the brother-group to which the father Ijeloiigs. A 

 brother-group may also constitute a father-group and grandfather-group, a son- 

 group and a graudsou-group. It may also be a patruate-group and an avuuculate- 

 group. It may also be a patruate cousin-group and an avuuculate cousiu-group; 

 and in general, every member of a brother-group has the same cousanguiueal relation 

 to i)ersons outside of the grouji as that of every other member. 



Two postulates concerning primitive society, adoiited by various eth- 

 nologic students of other countries, have been erroneously applied to 

 the Aniericau aborigines; at the same time they have been so widely 

 accepted as to demand consideration. 



Tlie first postulate is that primitive men were originally assembled 

 in chaotic hordes, and that organized society was developed out of the 

 chaotic mass by the segregation of groups and tlie dift'erentiation of 

 functions within each group. Now the American aborigines collect- 

 ively represent a wide range in development, extending from a condi- 

 tion about as primitive as ever observed well toward the verge of 

 feudalism, and thus off'er opportunities for testing the postulate; and 

 it has been found that when higher and lower stages representing any 

 portion of the developmental succession are compared, the social organ- 

 izations of the lower grade are no less definite, ])erhaps more definite, 

 than those pertaining to the higher grade; so tliat when the history of 

 demotic growtli among the American Indians is traced backward, the 

 organizations are found on the whole to grow more definite, albeit more 

 simple. When the lines of development revealed through research are 

 l>roJected still farther toward their origin, they indicate an initial con- 

 dition, directly antithetic to tlie postulated horde, in which the scant 

 population was segregated iu small discrete bodies, probably family 

 groups; and that in each of these bodies there was a definite organiza- 

 tion, while each group was practically independent of, and i)robably 



' Tlrird Annual Keport of the Bureau of Ethnologj-, for 1881-82 (1884), pp. iliv-xlv. 



