TEIBAL MAERIAGE LAW. 



A tribe cannot be developed through the expansion of a clan. 

 The clan is not the antecedent of the tribe, nor is the tribe the 

 antecedent of the clan. A clan is an integral part of a tribe, 

 and there is no tribe without the clans of which it is composed, 

 and no clan without the tribe of which it is a part. The com- 

 munal family seems to be the antecedent of the tribe; but a 

 single communal family could not develop into a tribe. A tribe 

 seems to have primitively been a federation of communal 

 families. Whatever its primitive origin, the special organiza- 

 tion of any particular tribe must have been accomplished by 

 combining bodies-politic that were previously distinct, and the 

 basis of federation must have been one of intermarriage. In 

 the simplest form two such distinct bodies could unite by mak- 

 ing an agreement that the women of each should become the 

 wives of the other. If three bodies-politic combine, the women 

 of A might become the wives of the men of B, the women of 

 B wives of the men of C, and the women of C wives of the men 

 of A. In the thirt} r -fourth chapter of Genesis we read: 



"And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob 



to commune with him. 



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"And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my 

 son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray 3 7 ou give her 

 him to wife. 



"And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters 

 unto us, and take our daughters unto you. 



"And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before 

 you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions 

 therein." 



The essence of tribal organization is this: The institution of 

 a tribe is an institution for the regulation of marriage; and 

 hence marriage is primitively by prescription. But the selec- 

 tion of wives by legal appointment ultimately develops into 

 selection by personal choice, and tribal organization is greatly 

 modified thereby. 



