BULL. 30] 



FAMILY 



451 



some measure — that of his mother and that 

 of his father. Both clans exercise rights 

 and are bound by obligations to the house- 

 hold of which he is a member; both have, 

 moreover, in different measure, the 

 rights and obligations of kinship to him. 



The second and smaller group, .the fire- 

 side or household, includes only the hus- 

 band, his wife or wives, and their chil- 

 dren. Where there are several wives 

 from several different families, this grouji 

 in its family relations becomes very in- 

 tricate, but is nevertheless under the rigid 

 control of family law and usage. 



It is thus apparent that these two groups 

 of persons are in fact radically distinct, 

 for the lesser group is not merely a por- 

 tion of the larger. The relative status of 

 the husband and his wife or wives and 

 their children makes this evident. 



Custom, tradition, and the common law 

 do not regard the wife or wives of the 

 household as belonging to the clan of the 

 husband. By marriage the wife acquires 

 no right of membership in her husband's 

 clan, but remains a member of her own 

 clan, and, equally important, she trans- 

 mits to her children the right of mem- 

 bership in her clan; and she acquires no 

 rights of inheritance of property either 

 from her husband or from his clan. On 

 the other hand, the husband acquires no 

 rights from his wife or from her clan, and 

 he, likewise, does not become a member 

 of his wife's clan. 



But the fireside, or household, is the 

 product of the union by marriage of two 

 persons of different clans, which does not 

 establish between the husband and wife 

 the mutual rights and obligations arising 

 from blood feud and from inheritance. 

 It is precisely these mutual rights and 

 obligations that are peculiarly character- 

 istic of the relations between clansmen, 

 for they subsist only between persons of 

 common blood, whether acquired by birth 

 or by adoption. Therefore, husband and 

 wife do not belong to the same clan or 

 family. 



As there is a law of the clan or exogamic 

 kinship group governing acts and rela- 

 tions as between members of the same 

 clan group, so there are rules and usages 

 governing the household or fireside and 

 defining the rights and obligations be- 

 longing to its jurisdiction. The relations 

 of the various members of the fireside are 

 affected by the fact that every member 

 of it is directly subject to the general rule 

 of the clan or higher kinship group — the 

 husband to that of his clan, the wife or 

 wives to those of their respective clans, 

 and the children to tho.se of both parents, 

 but in different kind and degree. 



The dominating importance of the fam- 

 ily in the social organization of a primitive 

 people is apparent; it is one of the most 



vital institutions founded by private law 

 and usage. In such a community every 

 member is directly obligated to the 

 family, first of all, for the protection that 

 safeguards his welfare. The members of 

 the family to which he belongs are his 

 advocates and his sureties. In the grim 

 blood feud the family defends him and 

 his cause, even with their lives, if need be, 

 and this care ends not with his death, for 

 if he be murdered the family avenges his 

 murder or exacts payment therefor. In 

 the savage and barbaric ages, even to the 

 beginning of civilization, the community 

 placed reliance largely on the family for 

 the maintenance of order, the redress of 

 wrongs, and the punishment of crime. 



Concerned wholly with the intimate 

 relations of private life, family custom 

 and law are administered within the 

 family and by its organs; such customs 

 and laws constitute daily rules of action, 

 which, with their underlying motives, 

 embody the common sense of the com- 

 munity. In a measure they are not with- 

 in the jurisdiction of public enactment, 

 although in specific cases the violation of 

 family rights and obligations incurs the 

 legal penalties of tribal or public law, and 

 so sometimes family government comes 

 into conflict with public law and welfare. 

 But by the increasing power of tribal or 

 public law through centralization of 

 power and jjolitical organization the in- 

 dependence of the family in private feuds, 

 regarded as dangerous to the good order 

 of the community, is gradually limited. 

 And when the family becomes a unit or 

 is absorbed in a higher organization the 

 individual acquires certain rights at the 

 expense of the family — the right of apjieal 

 to the higher tribunal is one of these. 



The wealth and power of a clan or fam- 

 ily depend primarily on the dearth or 

 abundance of its numbers. Hence the 

 loss of a single person is a great loss, and 

 there is need that it be made good by re- 

 placing the departed with another or by 

 many others, according to the relative 

 standing and importance of the person to 

 be restored. For example, Aharihon, an 

 Onondaga chieftain of the 17th century, 

 sacrificed 40 men to the shade of his 

 brother to show the great esteem in 

 which he held him. But among the Iro- 

 quois the duty of restoring the loss does 

 not devolve directly on the stricken clan 

 or exogamic kinship group, but upon 

 all allied to it by the ties of what is 

 termed hontonnishon^ — i. e., upon those 

 whose fathers are clansmen of the per- 

 son to be replaced. So the birth or the 

 adoption of many men in a clan or ex- 

 ogamic kinship group is a great advan- 

 tage to it; for although these men Ijecome 

 separated through the obligation of mar- 

 rying into clans or such groups other than 



