534 



Husband's sister (elder and younger) = Naivdgu. 

 Elder and younger brother's wife (w.s.) — Xaii'df/u. 

 Wife's elder and younger sister's hushsind = I tsigoina. 

 Husband's elder and younger brother's vfiie = Munigoina. 

 Son's wife's parents= Vedni. 

 Daughter's husband's parents— Vedni. 



These are the classifactory terms of relationship of the 

 Mailu. It must be, however, noted that although the term 

 for elder brother, Uiniegi, for instance, comprises more people 

 than we would design in our so-called descriptive system, it is 

 by no means comprehensive of all the members of the village 

 community, or even of the clan, which would, were it possible 

 to trace their kinship, fall into the classificatory category of 

 "elder brothers." In other words, if we should take the village 

 community, or the clan, or even the subclan, and ask our 

 informants (ex hyjJotJiesi a member of this group) to classify 

 those men according to their relationship to him, he would be 

 unable to do it. He would pick out a certain number of men 

 and design them by appropriate kinship terms. Of the rest 

 he would say that they are no relations of his. The "classifica- 

 tory" system of kinship does not classify the man's community 

 nor his clan, nor even his subclan, according to their degree of 

 relationship. Only such people as a man is actually able to 

 place in his pedigree are designed by kinship terms. As the 

 Mailu man is not able as a rule to trace his genealogy beyond 

 his grandfather, the range of the classificatory terms is not 

 very wide. 



It is true that in addressing each other the natives use 

 the terms of kinship within a much wider range, comprising 

 practically the whole community and, a fortiori, the subclan 

 and clan. Whoever is not addressed by one of these terms is 

 spoken at as Ga'idi — a word corresponding to the Mailu Turdgu 

 and meaning "intimate friend." It must be noted, however, 

 that the terms of relationship used in such a broad sense are 

 really "terms of address" merely. The difference between their 

 strict use and their broad use as "terms of address" is essential. 

 In the first case they express an actual social relationship, which 

 is rooted in the mode of living (membership of the household 

 and of the subclan), in the economic relations (comp., e.g., the 

 Veveni custom, inheritance, forms of work, etc.), and in cer- 

 tain ceremonial duties and obligations (comp., e.g., mourning). 

 As terms of address, the classificatory terms of kinship are only 

 the expression of a certain feeling of efiqueffe, which compels 

 two people engaged in a friendly conversation to exaggerate 

 the intimacy of their relationship and to consider the use of 

 personal names as a disrespectful act. 



I 



