Notes on the Piegan System 

 of Consanguinity 



By Truman Michelson 



LTHOUGH much has been written on the Piegan system 

 of consanguinity, I think all ethnologists will agree that 

 the data are more or less conflicting; so that after all our 

 real knowledge of the system is next to nothing. I believe 

 that in the circumstances a review of the existing litera- 

 ture may not be entirely unwelcome, even if most of what I have to 

 offer is destructive criticism rather than constructive synthesis. It 

 will at least clear the way for future investigations of the system. 

 Practically all the data on which the present writer bases his criti- 

 cisms were obtained in the winter of 1916. The informants were 

 Mountain Chief and Richard Sanderville; the latter served also as 

 interpreter. The published literature on the Piegan system of con- 

 sanguinity is as follows: Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity, 1 871; 

 Tims, Grammar and Dictionary of the Blackfoot Language, 1889; 

 Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, 1892; Wissler, The Social Life of the 

 Blackfoot Indians, 191 1; 1 Curtis, North American Indian, vol. vi, 

 191 1 ; Uhlenbeck, Flexion of Substantives in Blackfoot, 1913, 2 and 

 Spier, Blackfoot Relationship Terms, 1915. 3 For the benefit of those 

 who are not specialists, it may be added that Piegan, Blood, and 

 Blackfoot are dialectic variations of one major division of the Algon- 

 quian stock. 



We will review the published literature in the order of sequence 

 given above. My criticisms are based on direct interrogations as well 

 as on my own schedules. 



At the time Morgan obtained his information, conditions for 

 ethnological research were very trying, and it must be remembered 

 that Morgan was a pioneer in American ethnology. The following 

 remarks are not intended to disparage his work, which indeed formed 

 the foundation for the study of the sociology of the American tribes, 

 but are made in the interest of scientific truth and also because of 

 the weight given his name in European circles. It cannot be denied 



1 Anthr. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. VII, pt. I. 



-Verhand. d. Kon. Akad. v. Wet. te Amsterdam, Afd. Let., N.R.D. xiv, no. I. 



* Amer. Anthr., N. s., xvn, p. 603 f. 



[320 



