60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTK. 



The Institute, without desiring to contract tlie fielfl of observation^ 

 begs leave to direct your attention to the following matters : — 



(1.) The basis of family or tribal organization, e.g , whether it be 

 purely personal, or j)artake to any extent of teiritorial attributes; the 

 received mode of ranking and tracing relationshijjs, paternal, mater- 

 nal, or both ; with a table of dfgrees, il possible, of agnates and cog- 

 nates. 



(2.) Adoption, its kinds, ceremonies and formulje, the extent of 

 its use, and the particulars in which it modifies the fauiily, gens, 

 tribe, etc. 



(3.) The rules and practice which govern the contracting, main- 

 t lining and dissolving of marriage; the degrees of prohibition ; exo- 

 gamy and endogamy ; the effect of marriage on the status of Avoman, 

 her position upon divorce, etc. 



(4.) Grades of persons of Ijotli sexes apart from office, fre ; and 

 slave ; to what extent mature children of either sex are the subjects 

 of rights ; the age of enfranchisement, if any. 



(5.) The character of parental power, paternal and maternal ; its 

 extent over pei-sons and property in mattei s civil and criminal ; 

 exceptions to it. 



(6.) Offices, their kind.s, the powers annexed to them, the terms for 

 which and on which they are held ; the mode of succession, e.g., gen- 

 eral election, election by a few, election within a group, inheritance, 

 etc. 



(7.) Assemblies or councils and the questions treated at them ; how 

 and by whom they are summoned ; in whom resides the right of 

 debate and franchise in the several assemblies of the family, gens, 

 band, tribe, or nation. 



(8.) Property, its admitted classes inside the family and tiibe ;. 

 joint proprietorship how acquired, held, managed, aliened ; whether 

 common ownership is acknowledged, and in what respects it is distin- 

 guished from joint ownership; whether private property is allowed;. 

 if so, how acquired, enjoyed, ti-ansferred, or lost ; whether succession 

 to it is permitted ; if so, within what degrees ; if not, how it is dis- 

 posed of, e.g., Vjuried with body on death of owner, burnt, or otlier- 

 wise destroyed. 



