LII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



tribes that will have entirely diverse clans. The segmentation 

 of clans in this manner complicates the definition of a clan. It 

 is no longer one of the co-ordinate groups of a tribe. These 

 co-ordinate groups are but segments of clans, and each such 

 segment is likely to become a distinct feud-group and a distinct 

 proprietary group. Sometimes in such a case all the segments 

 will yet recognize one presbyarch, but oftener a distinct pres- 

 byarch for each segment is developed. Enatic or agnatic dis- 

 tinctions, the common tutelar god, the common name and the 

 characteristic of exogamy are more likely to remain perma- 

 nent. 



This fissiparous generation of tribes leads to a complication 

 in the definition of the term "tribe," as such cognate tribes are 

 likely to unite into confederacies, with a council and a chief 

 presiding over the larger body thus constituted; and in the 

 various changes which may be wrought upon the different 

 groups of several orders in a confederacy by many redistribu- 

 tions of characteristics, it sometimes becomes difficult to say 

 just what order of groups shall be called tribes. Confederacies 

 also form alliances, and though they are apt to leave the con- 

 federacies or tribes of which they are composed independent 

 and autonomous, except for offensive or defensive purposes 

 against more foreign peoples, they doubtless sometimes continue 

 and become more thoroughly cemented by the development of 

 kinship ties and governmental organizations. 



Sometimes clans divide into sub-clans, while yet remaining 

 in the same tribe. The nature of this division in enatic clans 

 is not clearly understood. It may be that it does not occur 

 normally but that the apparent instances are due to the re- 

 coalescing of tribes. Be this as it may, it occurs with agnatic 

 clans. Agnatic clans may be ruled by a presbyarch, and may 

 be divided into segments, each one of which is ruled by a 

 patriarch, the patriarchies being subordinate groups within a 

 presbyarchal agnatic clan. Under these circumstances, how- 

 ever, the authority of the presbyarch is likely to wane, and the 

 patriarchies are likely to be more enduring, and so the clan is 

 divided into sub-clans. Thus it happens that the presbyarchy 

 is not always a characteristic of a clan. 



