160 The Glassificatory Syste'ni of 



I know, of Matliuata), the Tongans, and the Narrinyeri, a. 



South Australian Tribe ; and the system is that which we 

 call the Turanian. 



A nation, therefore, which has the Barbaric form of the 

 family consists, or did at one time consist, of two or more 

 tribes which exchano;e their sons or their dauo-hters. 



Thus, A and B being two tribes under the Ganowanian 

 system, A gives its sons as husbands to the daughters of B, 

 takino- in exchange B's sons as husbands for its own 

 daughters. Under the Turanian system, A gives its 

 daughters as wives to the sons of B ; and in return, B gives 

 its daughters to A's sons. (Observe throughout this paper 

 I use the words " husband," " wife," and " marriage," in an 

 accommodated sense.) Hence it is evident that the males of 

 A are brothers to the wives of the males of B, and that the 

 males of B are brothers to the wives of the males of A. The 

 only change in the Malay system effected by this step, is the 

 prohibition of intercourse between brother and sister. The 

 old license of polyandry and polygynia is still preserved, the 

 famil}^ consisting of a number of men, all brothers in theory, 

 who live in promiscuous intercourse with a number of 

 women, all sisters in theory, that is, sisters to one another, 

 but not sisters to the males, who are their husbands. All 

 the children of a tribe are called brothers and sisters ; and 

 since either all the male children, or all the female, are 

 removed from the tribe, a man's matrimonial choice is 

 restricted to the daughters of his father's sisters, and to 

 those of his mother's brothers ; but as many of these women 

 as there are, so many wives has he. Accepting this theory, 

 we have a ready explanation of all the peculiarities of the 

 system. 



For instance, I being male, all my brother's children 

 are my children, because my brother and I have our wives 

 in common ; but my sister's children are my nephews 

 and nieces, because I am restricted from intercourse with 

 her, and therefore they cannot be my children. So also, 

 I being female, my sister's children are called my children, 

 because my sister and I have our husbands in common ; but 

 my brother's children are my nephews and nieces, because I 

 am removed from him into another tribe. Whence his 

 children cannot be my children. 



The return of the collateral line into the lineal, in the 

 thud generation, is equally easy of explanation. Let A and 

 B represent two males of different tribes. Under the 



