810 REPORT— 1903. 



the houses of the dead. They included essentially the following charactel'9 J 

 (a) a rowing-boat ; (b) a sailing-boat; (c) a granary; {d) a bakery; (e) a brewery; 

 (/) an ox, or sacrifice ; {ff) a girl with geese and basket. The groups varied 

 slightly, but these were uniformly included. They seem to have borne no relation 

 to the profession of the deceased, but are simply of religious motive — the elaborate 

 provision for a future journey. In one case two other vessels were deposited, but 

 they were of warlike character, and in this case probably had a special signifi- 

 cance. In them were armed men, shields, spears, and an interesting group of two 

 figures playing chess. 



Numerous small objects were discovered, among them a small wooden statuette 

 of a woman carrying her babe in a shawl upon her back. She is characteristically 

 Libyan. The photographs number about 450, and arrangements are being made 

 for their publication. 



MOJ^BAT, SEPTEMBER 14. 

 The following Report and Papers were read: — 



1. Report of the Committee on the Psychology aiid Sociology of the Todaa. 



See Reports, p. 415. 



2. Toda Kinship and Marriage. By W. H. R. Rivers, M.D. 



The kinship system and marriage institutions of the Todas were studied by means 

 of the genealogical method.^ The Todas preserve their pedigrees by oral trans- 

 mission for several generations, but considerable difiiculty was experienced in ob- 

 taining the record owing to the existence of a taboo on the names of dead relatives. 



Finally, however, a fairly complete genealogical record of the whole com- 

 munity was obtained, going back for two or three generations, and this furnished 

 the basis for the study of the social organisation. 



The system of kinship is of the kind known as ' classificatory,' every male of 

 an individual's clan being either his grandfather, father, brother, son, or grandson 

 and every female his grandmother, mother, sister, daughter, or granddaughter. A 

 special feature of the system is that the father-in-law receives the same name as 

 the mother's brother, and the mother-in-law the same name as the father's sister. 

 The orthodox Toda marriage is one between the children of brother and sister : a 

 man marries normally the daughter of his maternal uncle, or of his paternal aunt ; 

 and this custom, which is common in Southern India, has so influenced the system 

 of kinship that both mother's brother and wife's father receive the same name, 

 even when the two relations are not united in the same person. 



There are two distinct sets of kinship terras : one set used when speaking of a 

 person, and the other used in direct address. The latter terms are more limited 

 in number than the former, and are used in a more general way, and the names 

 of this kind given by individuals to one another are determined largely by the 

 respective generations and relative ages of the speakers. 



Although the Toda system is definitely of the cla.ssificatory kind, the people 

 often used terms which define more exactly the nature of the relationship ; thus, a 

 man might speak of his nephew as ' my son,' or as 'my younger brother's son.' 

 This and other similar practices seem to show that the Toda system is losing its 

 purely classificatory character, and is approaching the descriptive stage. 



The Todas have very definite marriage regulations. The people are divided 

 into two endogamous groups, each of which is subdivided into a number of 

 exogamous groups which may be called ' clans.' 



The two chief groups are not allowed to intermarry : a man must marry a 

 woman of his own division. The clans into which the two chief divisions are sub- 



' Jown. Anthrov, Inst. xxxi. 1900, p. 74. 



