POWELL] SOCIOLOGY XCIII 



group of people having- a coinmon name. Suppose that a tribe 

 springs from four jjersons, viz, a brother and a sister belonging 

 to one clan and a brother and a sister belong-ino- to another 

 clan, and that each of the men marries the other's sister. Let 

 us call one of our clans "Wolf" and the other "Eagle." The 

 Wolf man marries the Eagle woman and the Eagle man marries 

 the Wolf woman. This is the tirst generation of a trilie com- 

 posed of two clans, the man and his wife belonging to different 

 clans. The four persons belong to two clans, and constitute 

 two families. Let us suppose that each couple has foi;r chil- 

 dren — two boys and two girls. They will belong to two clans. 

 The children of the Wolf mother will belong to tlie Wolf clan 

 and the children of the Eagle mother to tlie Eagle clan, for 

 the children take the name of the mother. This is the second 

 generation. Then four people of the second generation and 

 two of the first generation belong to the Wolf clan; and four 

 of the second generation and two of the first generation belong 

 to the Eagle clan. Thus we see that clans do not correspond 

 to what we call families. The husband and wife belong to 

 different clans; and the children belong to the clan of the 

 mother, and take the name of the mother. The mother, not 

 the father, owns the children; and the husbaird is but the guest 

 of his wife, not the head of the household. 



Suppose that each man of the second generation marries 

 a woman of that generation who belongs to a different clan, 

 and that each pair has four children — two boys and two girls. 

 These children constitute the third generation. The children 

 belong to the elan of the mother. There are now three genera- 

 tions of people in each clan ; and every mother claims her own 

 children as members of her clan. The head of the family is the 

 mother; biit the head of the clan is the grandmother's brother. 

 Always the elder-man of the clan is the ruler of the clan; and 

 the woman is the famil}^ ruler of her children. We may go 

 on from the hypothetical beginning of a tribe through succes- 

 sive generations; and still the ruler of the clan will be the 

 elder-man of the clan and will govern not his own children and 

 their descendants, but his sister's children and their descendants. 

 We may tlierefore define a clan as a group of kindred people 

 whose kinship is reckoned only through females. 



