8 1 Indian- 01 THE PLAINS. 



anthropology. Is, after all, chiefly a study of culture, 

 ii i- usual to place under one head all unite having 

 exactly the same culture when otherwise closely related 

 by language and blood. Our previous list of tribes, 

 therefore, represent- those of approximately equal 

 cultural values for the whole series of traits (p. 17). 



Using tribe to designate units with independent 

 governing bodies, we find that these tribes are in turn 

 composed of small units, each under the leadership of a 

 chief, seconded by a few head men. These subdivisions 

 are often designated in technical literature as bands — 

 a chief and his followers. It frequently happens that 

 the members of these bands inherit their memberships 

 according to a fixed system. When this is reckoned 

 through the mother, or in the female line, the term clan 

 is used instead of band; when reckoned in the male 

 line, gens. The clans and gentes of the Plains are of 

 special interest because of the tendency to regulate 

 marriage so that it must be exogamic, or between 

 individuals from different clans and gentes and also 

 because of the difficulty in discovering whether this is 

 due to the mere accident of blood relationship or some 

 other obscure tendency. On this point, there is a 

 large body of special literature. 



An exogamic gentile system has been reported for 

 the Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Oto. Missouri, Osage, and 

 Kansas. An exogamic clan system prevails among the 

 Hidatsa, Crow, and probably among the Mandan. 

 Among the Plateau group, the Arapaho, Kiowa, 

 Comanche, Assiniboine, and probable also among the 



