XLIV ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



one generation and placed in another, by agreement of the 

 elder women of the clan. 



Unadjusted kinships are frequently discovered, so that the 

 kinships claimed seem strange to civilized persons accus- 

 tomed only to the kinships recognized in the higher states 

 of culture. Thus it has frequently been found that an adult 

 has claimed a child for his grandmother and a babe for his 

 father. The subject is one of interest, and deserves careful 

 study. 



The method of classifying and naming by kinship terms the 

 six groups of cousins, their children and their children's child- 

 ren, has been neglected, in order that the general subject might 

 not be buried in details, and from the further consideration that 

 the principles of tribal organization can be set forth without 

 the aid of such additional facts. 



In the above statements the fundamental principles of tribal 

 kinship have been explained, and they may be restated as fol- 

 lows : 



I. — A body of kindred constituting a distinct body-politic 

 is divided into groups, the males into groups of brothers and 

 the females into groups of sisters, on distinctions of genera- 

 tions, regardless of degrees of consanguinity; and the kinship 

 terms used express relative age. In civilized society kinships 

 are classified on distinctions of sex, distinctions of generations, 

 and distinctions arising from degrees of consanguinity. 



II. — When descent is in the female line, the brother-group 

 consists of natal brothers, together with all the materterate 

 male cousins of whatever degree. Thus mother's sisters' sons 

 and mother's mother's sisters' daughters' sons, &c, are included 

 in a group with natal brothers. In like manner the sister-group 

 is composed of natal sisters, together with all materterate fe- 

 male cousins of whatever degree. 



III- — When descent is in the male line, the brother-group 

 is composed of natal brothers, together with all patruate male 

 cousins of whatever degree, and the sister-group is composed 

 of natal sisters, together with all patruate female cousins of 

 whatever degree. 



-"o* 



