ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XIX 



than morpliologic changes, and hence to bring about the 

 precise conditions long known to be characteristic of the 

 Caiifornian triljes. The researches concerning this subject are 

 not yet complete. 



During- the earlier part of the fiscal vear Mr Mooney con- 

 tinued researches relating to the Kiowa Indians and noted as 

 a conspicuous characteristic of the tribe the apparent absence 

 of a clan or gentile system; for, despite his intimate acquaint- 

 ance with and adoption into the tribe, he has never been al)le 

 to discover unmistakable traces of this commonly prominent 

 feature of primitive social organization. This peculiai- charac- 

 teristic has received attention from the Director and Ethnolo- 

 gist in Charge, and an apjjarently satisfactorv explanation has 

 been discovered: On reviewing the tribal customs it became evi- 

 dent that the widely roving Kiowa enjoyed contact witli other 

 tribes, and consequent accxdturatiou in an exceptional if not 

 unique degree. Sometimes the association was amicable, when 

 ideas and devices were freely interclianged: not infrequently 

 the contact was inimical, when the Kiowa were commonly 

 enriched l)j the acquisition not only of jilunder but of cap- 

 tives who were subsequently adopted into tlie tribe: and the 

 general effect of the wide association was to extend the intel- 

 lectual range and differentiate the blood of the Kiowas. 

 Especially important was the habitual adoption of captives, the 

 effect of which is always to introduce arbitrary relationships 

 tending to break down the natural kinship system; yet hardly 

 less important were the oft-recurring excursions for hunting- 

 and plunder, since they involved more or less arbitrary 

 extensions of the consanguineal organization, sonfiewhat 

 analogous to those attending the <levelopment of patriarcliy 

 among regularly nomadic peoples. Collectively, the conse- 

 quences of the roving- and predatory habits of the Kiowas 

 must have been to subordinate, in exceptional if not unique 

 degree, the prevailing kinship organization characteristic of 

 primitive society and to gloss or even to replace it with tlie more 

 strictly artificial or demotic system corresponding to that of 

 higher culture The results of Mr Mooney's researches con- 

 cerning the distinctive organization of the Kiowas will be 

 incorporated in a memoir on the heraldic system of the tribe. 



