40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



A portion of the results are summarized in a chapter on regimentation incorporated 

 in a preceding report. The researches are still in progress. 



Mr. W J McGee has continued the comparative study of social organization with 

 special reference to the Seri and Papago Indians. In the former tribe the social 

 organization appears to rest wholly on kinship traced through the female line; and 

 one of the consequences of this organization and of the peculiar isolation of the 

 people is found in a singular marriage custom which has been noted in previous 

 reports. The Papago Indians, on the other hand, have an organization based pri- 

 marily on kinship traced in the male line, but displaying also certain indications of 

 transition into some such artificial system as that which, on further development, 

 matures in civilization, i. e., sometimes the gentes are united in such manner that 

 a single kinship group combines two totems ; the kinship terminology is incomplete 

 in such way as to suggest curtaiJment through disuse; through seasonal migrations 

 and other causes there is a constant breaking up of.family groups, followed by inter- 

 mingling in new combinations in the form of colonies of patriarchal or even feudal- 

 istic character ; there is clear recognition of patriarchal property right in the waters 

 in which the material values of their arid territory inhere; while the governmental 

 control, though nominally vested in patriarchal shamans, is really regulated by an 

 officer selected through popular approval, who may be designated the people's 

 attorney. 



It is noteworthy that the Spanish invaders of the Western Hemisphere assimilated 

 the aboriginal much more completely than ihe Anglo-Saxon invaders of more north- 

 erly regions, so that in many instances the social institutions prevailing in Mexico 

 today have sprung from aboriginal germs. This is especially true of the patriarchal 

 organization characteristic of the Mexican provinces remote from the greater cities 

 and railways, which difi'ers in no essential particular from the organization still 

 found among the Papago Indians and recorded in their time-honored traditions. 

 Now, the comparative studies of the Seri and Papago social organizations, with the 

 analogue of the latter among the modern Mexicans, gives opportunity for clearing 

 up certain misapprehensions concerning primitive society. In barbaric culture, in 

 which descent is reckoned in the male line, the governmental control is vested in an 

 elder man (whose seniority may be either real or assumed), so that the organization 

 is patriarchal; and it has been inferred, without adequate observation and with 

 undue influence growing out of the convenience of antithetic terms, that in savage 

 culture, in which descent is reckoned in the female line, the social organization is 

 matriarchal. 



The case of the Seri Indians is perhaps the most striking among many examples, 

 indicating that, even when descent is traced exclusively through the female line. to 

 the exteiit that the father has no control over his wife's property or his own chil- 

 dren, the tribal control is, nevertheless, A^ested in male rulers, who may be either 

 shamans of exceptional shrewdness or warriors of exceptional valor and~ cunning. 

 Accordingly the terra "matriarchal" can only be regarded as erroneous and mislead- 

 ing when applied to this culture stage. This becomes especially clear in the light 

 of the observations among tlie Papago Indians and the mixed-blood Mexicans, in 

 which the rule is patriarchal, but in which there is an associated matriarchy, for 

 the wife of the patriarch occupies a position among the women and children of the 

 group corresponding to that of her spouse, primarily among the men, but secondarily 

 among all, so that patriarchy and matriarchy are in reality complementary aspects 

 of that culture stage in which descent is traced in the male line. Confusion is 

 avoided by designating the more primitive organization as maternal and the more 

 advanced as j^ateriral, and by restricting the terms patriarchal and matriarchal to 

 their legitimate functions, as indicated by the usage of southwestern peoples. The 

 details of the researches on this subject are too extended for summary statement; 

 but the principles developed through the study are important as a means of inter- 

 preting observation and thus guiding special research and contributing to scientific 

 knowledge of the aborigines. The work is still in progress. 



