2, HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
ralled a clan. As far as our knowledge extends, this organization runs 
through the entire ancient world upon all the continents, and it was brought 
down to the historical period by such tribes as attained to civilization. Nor 
is this all. Gentile society wherever found is the same in structural organi- 
zation and in principles of action ; but changing from lower to higher forms 
with the progressive advancement of the people. These changes give the 
history of development of the same original conceptions. 
THE GENS. 
Gens, yévos, and ganas in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit have alike the 
primary signification of kim. They contain the same element as gigno, 
ylyvomas, and ganamai, in the same languages, signifying to beget; thus 
implying in each an immediate common descent of the members of a gens. 
A gens, therefore, is a body of consanguinei descended from the same com- 
mon ancestor, distinguished by a gentile name, and bound together by affini- 
ties of blood. It includes a moiety only of such descendants. Where 
descent is in the female line, as it was universally in the archaic period, 
the gens is composed of a supposed female ancestor and her children, to- 
gether with the children of her female descendants, through females, in per- 
petuity; and where descent is in the male line—into which it was changed 
after the appearance of property in masses—of a supposed male ancestor 
and his children, together with the children of his male descendants, through 
males, in perpetuity. The family name among ourselves is a survival of 
the gentile name, with descent in the male line, and passing in the same 
manner. ‘The modern family, as expressed by its name, is an unorganized 
gens, with the bond of kin broken, and its members as widely dispersed as 
the family name is found. 
Among the nations named, the gens indicated a social organization of 
a remarkable character, which had prevailed from an antiquity so remote 
that its origin was lost in the obscurity of far distant ages. It was also the 
unit of organization of a social and governmental system, the fundamental 
basis of ancient society. This organization was not confined to the Latin, 
