198 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. ann. 37 



of human and animal forms. The latter conception is entirely a 

 religious one, the former merely an extension of the genealogical 

 tendency prevalent in many types of social organization. Instead 

 of being simply descended from an individual in a given social unit, 

 the bond of membership within this unit has been strengthened bj 

 the postulation of blood relationship to the clan animal. The idea 

 of descent may thus be looked upon as one of the elements necessary 

 for the stability of a political unit and may be far older than its- 

 specific extension to those clan animals. A very illuminating ex- 

 ample of a case in point can be selected from the history of the war 

 bundle in the Thunderbird clan. This bundle, like the others, was 

 obtained as a gift from the thunderbird in his capacity as a guardian 

 spirit. The ceremony connected with it has, however, been markedly 

 influenced by the clan organization and as a result we find descent 

 from the thimderbird and night-spirit, the two most important 

 spirits in the ceremony, postulated of the original owner of the war 

 bundle. The same tendency is exhibited in the numerous stories of 

 the relation of an individual of the heroic age to a village. Here 

 the individual, generally a transformed guardian spirit or animal, 

 comes to the aid of the people in their struggle against cannibals, 

 defeats the latter and marries into the village, becoming thus the 

 eponymous ancestor of the subsequent village group. 



At the same time no strong correlation apparently exists between 

 a totemic organization and the extension of descent to include the 

 clan animal, this seemingly being a peculiarity of certain cultm-es 

 only. Bonds other than descent from the animal are frec[uently 

 found and must unquestionably be considered as older than the 

 latter in a number of cases. On the Northwest coast, among the^ 

 Creek, Iroquois, and other tribes, descent from the totem is not 

 found. Among the Winnebago themselves, in addition to the above, 

 we find the idea that the Thunderbird clan takes its name from the 

 fact of its members imitating the actions of that animal. Some 

 versions of the origin myth give no reasons at all for the name, while 

 in others an animal is killed, becomes reincarnated as a human 

 being in a certain village, and the group takes its name from the 

 fact. The descent from the totem, however, where it has not been 

 primary, owing to its being a reflex expression of the social organiza- 

 tion, quite generally supplants the other interpretation. 



THE CLAX TIE 



In intimate relation with the attitude toward the clan animal is the 

 conception of the tie binding one member of the clan to another. 

 In no case did an individual regard the tie between him and another 

 member of the same clan as based upon descent from the same animal. 

 Blood relationship was always given as the reason for exogamy, as is 



