402 
ANTHROPOLOGY: C. WISSLER 
correlate them to form a consistent development series. The chief 
weakness of this method lies in the inadequacy of the data; for, so far as 
I know, the successive tribal organizations for an entire geographical 
area have never before been the object of detailed investigation. Hence, 
it is clear that such discussions as we have cited can at best be but 
hypothetical since the data upon which the}" are based do not in any way 
reveal the true characters of the phenomena involved. 
Our investigation was planned to face the other way, or to proceed by 
observation and the collection of concrete data upon all the tribes of a 
geographical area as a preHminary condition to the interpretation of the 
phenomena. 
The plan of work was developed in 1906 and was to include special 
investigations among the following tribes : Arikara, Blackfoot, Comanche, 
Crow, Dakota, Hidatsa,Iowa, Kansas, Kiowa-Apache, Mandan, Pawnee, 
Plains-Cree, Plains-Ojibway, Ponca, Sarsi, Shoshone, and Ute. The 
societies of the Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Omaha, Osage, Kiowa, and Chey- 
enne were excepted because they either had been or were then under 
investigation by others. 
It is clear that an investigation of such magnitude could not be con- 
ducted by a single individual but must proceed by the cooperation of 
several field-workers. Accordingly, the problem was taken up as a depart- 
mental investigation conducted by the writer and his associates in the 
American Museum of Natural History, Dr. P. E. Goddard, Dr. R. H. 
Lowie, and Mr. Alanson Skinner. The field-work has been completed 
and the reports upon the several tribes published preparatory to an 
exhaustive correlation of the data, which will form the final paper to the 
volume. 2 
Some of the most important results of this final study may be sum- 
marized as follows : 
1. It is now clear that the distinction of age found in some tribes, or 
where only persons of certain ages were eligible to membership, has 
no functional relation to the organization in which it is found for the 
very simple reason that in many cases what is obviously the same 
organization is found among other tribes independent of an age system. 
(Schurtz's conclusion was that all these societies were natural develop- 
ments from simple age groups.) 
2. The one feature that is almost universal is the exercising of police 
functions by some one or all of the tribal series of societies, but that the 
societies are expressions of a social tendency toward control is unlikely 
because they are often but the secondary or deputy police called upon 
for special service by permanent officials. In most cases the societ)^ is 
