694 



KINSHIP 



[b. a. e. 



or female, the propositus would call all 

 male and female persons who are the 

 children of his sons, daughters, nephews, 

 or nieces, ' grandchildren ' ; and, in like 

 manner, he or she would call all men 

 ' uncles ' whom his or her mothers would 

 call their 'brothers', and would call all 

 female persons 'aunts' who are his or her 

 father's sisters as well as those who are 

 the wives of his or her uncles. But the 

 father's sisters' husbands of a male person 

 are his brothers-in-law, because they are 

 the actual or potential husl)ands of his 

 sisters; and when the propositus is a 

 female person they are her actual or 

 potential husbands. 



Any female person whom a man's own 

 wife calls 'elder sister' or 'younger sis- 

 ter', her father's sister, or her brother's 

 (laughter is his potential wife. 



Any male person whom a man's wife 

 would call ' elder brother ' or ' younger 

 brother' is his brother-in-law; also any 

 other male person who is the brother of 

 his wife's niece or of his brother's wife. 

 But his wife's father's brother is his grand- 

 father, not his brother-in-law, although 

 his sister is his potential wife. When 

 his l)rother-in-law is the husband of his 

 father's sister or of his own sister, his sis- 

 ter is his grandchild, and not his poten- 

 tial wife. A male person is the brother- 

 in-law of a man if he be the husband of 

 the sister of the other's father, since that 

 man could marry his (the other's own) 

 sister, l)ut his aunt's husband is not his 

 brother-in-law when he is his own uncle 

 or his mother's brother. Any male per- 

 son is the brother-in-law of the man whose 

 sister is his wife. But since his sister's 

 niece's husband is his sister's potential 

 or actual husband, he is his son-in-law, 

 because he is his daughter's husband. 



A male or female person would call any 

 male person his or her 'son-in-law ' who is 

 the husband of his or her daughter, niece, 

 or grandchild, and his father is his or her 

 son-in-law. When a male person or a 

 female person would call the father of his 

 or her daughter-in-law his or her ' grand- 

 father,' her brother is his or her grandson. 



A male or female person would call any 

 other female person who is the wife of his 

 or her son, nephew, or grandson, his or 

 her 'daughter-in-law'; and the mother 

 of his or her son-in-law is so called by 

 him or her. 



The father, mother's brother, or grand- 

 father of a man's wife, of his potential 

 wife, or of his daughter-in-law (the last 

 being the wife of his son, nephew, or 

 grandson) is the grandfather (or father- 

 in-law) of that man. Any female person 

 who is the mother, mother's sister, or 

 grandmother of a man's wife, of his po- 

 tential wife, or of his daughter-in-law (a 

 wife of his son, nephew, or of his grand- 



son) is the grandmother (or mother-in- 

 law) of that man. 



By the institution of either the clan 

 (q. V.) or the gens system of determining 

 and fixing degrees of relationship, kin- 

 ship through males or through females 

 acquired increased importance, because 

 under either form of organization it signi- 

 fied 'clan kin' or 'gentile kin' in contra- 

 distinction to non-gentile kin. The 

 members of either were an organized 

 body of consanguinei bearing a common 

 clan or gentile name, and were bound 

 together by ties of blood and by tlie fur- 

 ther bond of mutual rights, privileges, 

 and obligations characteristic of the clan 

 or the gens. In either case, ' clan kin ' or 

 'gentile kin ' became superior to other kin, 

 because it invested its members with the 

 rights, privileges, and obligations of the 

 clan or gens. 



Where a man calls his mother's sister 

 'mother', and she in turn calls him her 

 'son', although she did not in fact give 

 him birth, the relationship must in strict- 

 ness be defined as a marriage relation- 

 ship and not as a blood relationship. 

 Under the clan or the gentile system of 

 relationships kinship was traced equally 

 through males and through females, but 

 a Vjroad distinction was made between 

 the paternal and the maternal kindred, 

 and the rights, privileges, and obliga- 

 tions of the members of the line through 

 which descent was traced were far more 

 real and extensive than were those of the 

 other line. Among North American In- 

 dians kinship through males was recog- 

 nized just as constantly as kinship through 

 females. There were brothers and sis- 

 ters, grandfathers and grandmothers, 

 grandsons and granddaughters, traced 

 through males as well as through females. 

 While the mother of a child was readily 

 ascertainable, the father was not, but be- 

 cause of this uncertainty, kinshipthrough 

 males was not therefore rejected, and 

 probable fathers, probable brothers, and 

 probable sons were placed in the category 

 of real fathers, real brothers, and real 

 sons. 



In every Iroquois community the de- 

 gree of security and of distinction which 

 every memlier of the community en- 

 joyed, dei>ended chiefly on the number, 

 the wealth, and the power of his kin- 

 dred, hence the tie uniting the members 

 of the kinship group was not lightly or 

 arbitrarily broken. 



It appears that where the clan organi- 

 zation is in vogue the adoption (q. v.) of 

 alien persons was customary. 



With descent in the female line a male 

 person had in his clan grandfathers and 

 grandmothers, mothers, brothers and 

 sisters, uncles, rarely nephews and nieces, 

 and grandsons and granddaughters, some 



