L ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



A sixth characteristic of a clan has been reached: A clan is 

 a feud-group of kindred. 



In tribal society great wealth is not accumulated. The in- 

 direct personal relations which arise through property are of 

 minor importance as compared with direct personal relations, 

 which are regulated by kinship and relative age. The insti- 

 tution of personal property is very slightly developed, and 

 such property, especially in the lower forms of tribal society, 

 is destroyed at the death of the individual. It is a widely- 

 spread law in savage society that personal property is inher- 

 ited by the grave. The tenure to the greater part of property 

 is communal, and inheres in the clan. 



A seventh characteristic of a clan has therefore been reached: 

 The clan is the chief property-holding group. 



It has already been mentioned that elder-right, in some form 

 or other, is universally recognized in tribal society. In gen- 

 eral, cceteris paribus, the elder has authority over the younger, 

 and in all tribal languages a special device is found to facili- 

 tate this custom, viz., individuals must always address each 

 other by kinship terms in which relative age is expressed; 

 thus, there is no general term for "brother," but a special term 

 for "elder brother," and another for "younger brother." This 

 elder-rule applies to the clan, as the eldest man of the clan is 

 its chief, and such a chief, whose rulership is by right of supe- 

 rior age, will here be called the prcsbyarch. 



An eighth characteristic of a clan has therefore been reached: 

 A clan is a presbyarchy. 



Let these characteristics be combined into a definition: A 

 clan is one of the co-ordinate groups into which a tribe of 

 cognatic people is divided, and is based upon enation or ag- 

 nation, has a totemic or ancestral tutelar god, a common name 

 tor its members, is exogamous, is a feud-group, a proprietary 

 group, and is ruled by a presbvarch. 



There are many other characteristics of a clan that are found, 

 now here, now there. For example, sometimes a clan will not 

 eat the animal or some portion of the animal whose riame 

 it bears; it will thus have what is usually called a "taboo." 

 Sometimes the several clans of a tribe will claim as their 



