HINTS AND EXPLANATIONS. 33 
kinship is its integrating principle, we infer that the languages must con- 
tain complete methods of designating these relationships. Among many of 
the tribes of North America the subject has been investigated in both lines, 
and the inferences from one line of investigation are the observed phe- 
nomena in the other line; thus the demonstration is perfected. In tribal 
society the units are bodies of consanguineal kindred, immediate or remote, 
real or artificial; no person can become a member of a tribe until he has 
become a member of one of its gentes by being adopted into some family 
as a son, brother, or some other relation. The language of tribal society 
provides a kinship term by which every one of its members may be desig- 
nated. 
There are various methods of assimilation, and in the phenomena 
which they present many important sociologic facts are discovered. Ina 
lower status of culture than that discovered among the North American 
Indians we find that society has for its integrating principle not the ties of 
kinship but the bond of marriage; and thus we have connubial society as 
distinguished from kinship society. Though connubial society has not 
been discovered in North America, it has elsewhere on the globe, and in 
the study of the North American Indians some of the customs of that stage 
are discovered as survivals. These surviving customs are represented in 
kinship terms to varying degrees in different languages; so that in customs 
and language alike we are able to trace the steps in evolution from connu- 
bial to kinship society. 
To set forth the steps here would require greater space than the pur- 
poses of this volume will allow, and, in fact, one of the more important 
reasons for its publication is to accumulate a greater number of facts for 
the final presentation of the subject. 
But an illustration will be given: 
There is a system of marriage in the lower status of society where a 
group of brothers marry a group of sisters in common. In such a system 
children have a group of men—the brothers—as their fathers, and a group 
of women—the sisters—as their mothers, and the children of the group of 
men and women call each other brothers and sisters. 
Now in some Indian communities we find that the sisters of a married 
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