BUNZELI ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE 477 



clans of the bride and groom, weddings are one of the most frequent 

 topics of conversation. 



The economic unit is the household, whose nature and methods of 

 function illustrate admirably certain very fimdamental Zufii atti- 

 tudes. The household is a group of variable composition, consisting 

 theoretically of a maternal family; that is, a woman and her husband, 

 her daughters with their husbands and cliildren. To this permanent 

 population is added a fluctuating group of miscellaneous male rela- 

 tives of the maternal Ime — the immarried, widowed, divorced, and 

 those rendered homeless by passing domestic storms. This group 

 occupies a single house consisting of several cormecting rooms. There 

 is a single kitchen drawing upon a common storehouse. The house- 

 hold owns certain cultivated fields which can not be alienated. In 

 addition, the various male members individually own certain fields — 

 generally fields recentty brought under cidtivation — which remam 

 their own after they have severed connection with the household. 

 However, all fields, whether collectively or individually owned, are 

 cultivated by the cooperative labor of the entire male population of 

 the household. The products go into the comnion storeroom to 

 become the collective property of the women of the household. The 

 women draw on the common stores for daUy food and trade the surplus 

 for other commodities. Sheep are owned individually by men but 

 are herded cooperatively by groups of male kindred. When the 

 profits of the shearing are divided a man is expected out of these to 

 provide clothing for himself, liis wife and children, including children 

 by previous marriages, and his mother and unmarried sisters, in case 

 they are not otherwise provided for. 



Personal relations within the household are characterized by the 

 same lack of individual authority and responsibility that marks the 

 economic arrangements. The household has no authoritative head 

 to enforce any kind of discipline. There is no final arbiter in dis- 

 putes; no open conflict. Ordinarily the female contingent of blood 

 relatives presents a united front. A man finding himself out of har- 

 mony with the group may withdraw quietly whenever he chooses and 

 ally himself with another group. With his departure obligations 

 cease, and his successor fathers his children. Diffusion of authority 

 and responsibility is especiaUy marked in the treatment of children. 



The tribe is divided into 13 matrilineal e.xogamous clans, varying 

 greatly in size from the YeUowwood, consisting of two male members, 

 and wliich will therefore become extinct with the present generation, 

 to the large so-caUed Dogwood (Pi'tcikwe) clan, which comprises 

 several hundreds of mdividuals. The kinship sj-stem foUows, in the 

 main, the Crow multiple clan system, aU members of one's own clan 

 being designated by classificatory terms. There are different temis 

 for classificatory relatives of the father's clan. Adoption is frequent, 



