ON KINSHIP AND THE TRIBE. 



So far as is now known, tribal society is everywhere based 

 on kinship. In the simplest form of which there is any knowl- 

 edge, the tribe consists of a group of men calling one another 

 brother, who are husbands to a group of women calling one 

 another sister. The children of these communal parents call 

 all the men fathers, and all the women mothers, and one another 

 brother and sister. In time these children become husbands 

 and wives in common, like their parents. Thus the kinship 

 system recognizes husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, 

 sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and grandparents and 

 grandchildren. The only kinship by affinity is that of husband 

 and wife. The only collateral kinships are those of brother and 

 brother, sister and sister, and brother and sister. The lineal 

 kinships are father and son, father and daughter, mother and 

 son, mother and daughter, with grandparents and grandchil- 

 dren also recognized. There is no recognized father-in-law, 

 mother-in-law, brother-in-law, nor sister-in-law ; there is no 

 uncle, no aunt, no cousin, no nephew, no niece recognized. 



It will thus be seen that all of the collateral kinships of uncle 

 and aunt and nephew and niece are included in the lineal kin- 

 ship of parent and child, and cousins of whatever degree are 

 reckoned as brothers and sisters. Let any person be desig- 

 nated as Ego. Then all the men of the antecedent generation 

 are his fathers, and all the women his mothers; all the males 

 of his own generation are his brothers, and all the females his 

 sisters; and all the males of the following generation are his 

 sons, and all the females his daughters. Selecting the Ego 

 from any generation and reckoning from him the antecedent 

 and subsequent generations, the following consanguineal kin- 

 ship groups will be found : Ego will be one of a group of broth- 

 ers ; there will be a group of sisters, a group of fathers, a 

 group of mothers, a group of grandfathers, and a group of 

 grandmothers ; there may also be a group of sons and a group 



