OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XLI 



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correlative cousin-groups. Thus, with the reduction of the 

 father-group there will be a corresponding reduction of the 

 brother and sister groups; and with the reduction of the 

 mother-group there will be an additional corresponding reduc- 

 tion of the brother and sister groups; that is, the paternal 

 aunts and maternal uncles will carry with them their correla- 

 tive nephews and nieces, and such nephews and nieces will be 

 substracted from the brothers and sisters. In this stasre of kin- 

 ship development there is still communal marriage. It may 

 not always be actual, as gradually restrictions are thrown 

 around it; but if not actual, it is always potential. The form 

 of kinship now reached is not an inference from philology and 

 the survival of customs, but is an observed fact among some 

 of the tribes of the earth. 



The recognition of patruates (paternal uncles) must next be 

 considered. Such a recognition results in the establishment of 

 two additional cousin-groups, as the sons and daughters of 

 patruates are taken out from the "brothers" and "sisters" of 

 Ego. At this stage brothers and sisters are still own (natal) 

 and collateral, but the collateral brothers and sisters include 

 only the children of mothers' sisters, and this because a group 

 of materterates is not established. 



We have now reached that kinship system which is perhaps 

 the most widely distributed among existing tribes of mankind. 

 It will be well, then, to describe it once more, that it may be 

 clearly understood: 



The brother-group consists of the sons of a woman, together 

 with the sons of all of her sisters, own and collateral; and the 

 sister-group is of like extension. The son-group is coextensive 

 with the brother-group to which the son belongs; the daughter- 

 group is coextensive with the sister-group to which the daughter 

 belongs; the father-group is coextensive with the brother- 

 group to which the father belongs; and the mother-group has 

 a like extension. The patruate-group is coextensive with the 

 brother-group of the paternal uncle; the amitate-group is co- 

 extensive with the sister-group to which the paternal aunt 

 belongs ; the avunculate-group is coextensive with the brother- 



