BDLL. 30] 



KINSHIP 



693 



nearly all the tribes of the plains, the Pa- 

 cific slope, and the N. W. coast. The Kla- 

 math system recognizes only two degrees 

 in ascending above and only two in de- 

 scending below the propositus in the 

 direct line, and four collateral degrees of 

 the paternal line, that of father's brothers, 

 that of father's uncles, and then that of 

 father's sisters and that of father's aunts; 

 and four collateral degreesof the maternal 

 line, that of mother's sisters, that, of 

 mother's aunts, that of mother's brothers, 

 and that of mother's uncles, or eight col- 

 lateral degrees in. all. Hence in reckon- 

 ing descent below himself in the direct 

 line the offspring of propositus lecog- 

 nizes one degree of kinship below the 

 lowerof the two admitted by his father; 

 but in the ascending direct line, the off- 

 spring of propositus does not recognize as 

 a relation the higher of the two admitted 

 by his father. So that in this system the 

 circle of relationships shifts with the per- 

 son selected as the starting point of the 

 reckoning. The father recognizes rela- 

 tions which his child does not admit, and 

 the child recognizes relations which the 

 father does not admit. 



Where the blood ties appear to be so 

 limited and so disregarded in the social 

 organization, the cohesion of the tribe is 

 accomplished more or less satisfactorily 

 through military, religious, or other so- 

 cieties. 



In North America those tribes among 

 whom the clan system prevailed, with the 

 tracing of descent through the female 

 line, became the most important peoples 

 of modern times. The Five Civilized 

 Tribes of Oklahoma and the Iroquois 

 peoples are examples of this. 



Among the Omaha a man must not 

 /marry in his own gens. A law of mem- 

 bership requires that a child belong to its 

 father's gens. This is descent in the 

 male line, but children of white or black 

 persons (negroes) belong to the gens of 

 the mother, into which they are forbid- 

 den to marry. Moreover, a stranger can 

 not belong to any gens of the tribe be- 

 cause there is no ceremony of adoption 

 into a gens. A man is prohibited from 

 marrying a woman of the gens of his fa- 

 ther, as the women of this gens are his 

 grandmothers, aunts, sisters, nieces, 

 daughters, or granddaughters. For the 

 same reason he can not marry a woman 

 of the gens of his father's mother, but he 

 can marry a woman belonging to any 

 other gens of his paternal grandmother's 

 phratry, as she would not be of his kin- 

 dred. 



Consanguineous or blood kinship em- 

 braces not only the gens of the father, 

 but also that of the mother and grand- 

 mothers, and these kindred with refer- 

 ence to a man fall into fourteen groups, 



and with reference to a woman into fif- 

 teen groups. 



Among the Omaha, within the phratry 

 in which gentes exist, those who occupy 

 the one side of the fire are not regarded 

 as full kindred by those occupying the 

 other side of the fire, and they are pro- 

 hibited from intermarrying. But were 

 it not for the institution of these gentes 

 or quasi-kindred groups within the phra- 

 tries, a man would be compelled to 

 marry outside of his tribe, for the reason 

 that all the women of the tribe would 

 otherwise be his kindred through the 

 previous intermarriages among the ten 

 original "gentes" or phratries. 



The Omaha kinship system may be 

 taken as typical of the gentile organiza- 

 tion, tracing descent through the male 

 line. In this system the relationships are 

 highly complex and the terms, or rather 

 their api:)roximate English equivalents, 

 denotive of these relationships are em- 

 ployed with considerable latitude and in 

 quite a different manner from their use in 

 English. For example: If the propositus 

 be a male or a female, he or she would 

 call all men his or her 'fathers' whom his 

 or her father would call 'brothers', or 

 whom his or her mother would call her 

 potential 'husbands.' He or she would 

 call all women his or her 'mothers' 

 whom his or her mother would call 'sis- 

 ters', 'aunts', or 'nieces', or whom his 

 or her father would call his potential 

 'wives.' Moreover, he or she would call 

 all men 'brothers' who are the sons of 

 such fathers or mothers, and their sisters 

 would be his or her 'sisters.' He or she 

 would call all men his or her 'grandfatli- 

 ers ' who are the fathers or grandfathers 

 of his or her fathers or mothers, or whom 

 his or her fathers or mothers would call 

 their mothers' 'brothers.' He or she 

 would also call all women his or her 

 'grandmothers' who are the real or po- 

 tential wives of his or her grandfathers, 

 or who are the mothers or grandmothers 

 of his or her fathers or mothers, or whom 

 his or her fathers would call their fathers' 

 ' sisters. ' 



If the propositus be a male he would 

 call all males his ' sons ' who are the sons 

 of his brothers or of his potential wives, 

 and the sisters of these sons are his 

 'daughters.' If the propositus be a 

 female person she would call all children 

 of her sisters her 'children', because their 

 father is or their fathers are her potential 

 or actual husband or husbands; and she 

 would call those males her 'nephews' 

 who are the sons of her brothers, and the 

 daughters of her brothers would be her 

 ' nieces.' 



If the propositus be a male, he would 

 call his sister's son his 'nephew' and her 

 daughter his 'niece'; but whether male 



