HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMHERI- 
CAN ABORIGINES. 
BY LEWIS H. MORGAN. 
CHAP TER I. 
SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. 
In a previous work* I have considered the organization of the Ameri- 
can aborigines in gentes, phratries, and tribes, with the functions of each in 
their social system. From the importance of this organization to a right 
understanding of their social and governmental life, a recapitulation of the 
principal features of each member of the organic series is necessary in this 
connection. 
The gentile organization opens to us one of the oldest and most widely- 
prevalent institutions of mankind. It furnished the nearly universal plan 
of government of ancient society, Asiatic, Kuropean, African, American, 
and Australian. It was the instrumentality by means of which society was 
organized and held together. Commencing in savagery, and continuing 
through the three subperiods of barbarism, it remained until the establish- 
ment of political society, which did not occur until after civilization had 
commenced. The Grecian gens, phratry, and tribe, the Roman gens, curia, 
and tribe find their analogues in the gens, phratry, and tribe of the Ameri- 
can aborigines. In like manner tie Irish sept, the Scottish clan, the phrara 
of the Albanians, and the Sanskrit ganas, without extending the comparison 
further, are the same as the American Indian gens, which has usually been 
— - 
* “Ancient Society ; or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Bar- 
barism to Civilization.” Henry Holt & Co. 1877. . 
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