2 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 10. 
the Winnebago, Dhegiha, and Tciwere, we would be compelled 
to accept as true the former of these historical possibilities. 
Such, as a matter of fact, is probably the correct interpretation. 
However, it might properly be objected that the Mandan, cer- 
tainly the Hidatsa, do not exhibit such an intimate cultural 
and linguistic relationship to the other tribes mentioned and yet 
exemplify the same social grouping; that it is found among the 
Creek and among a number of other tribes. The twofold 
grouping associated with exogamy has indeed developed fre- 
quently enough to justify us in including it in a consideration of 
historical possibilities . 
Even were we to accept in toto the criteria of tenacity, 
how much does it tell us of social organization ? The social 
unit is itself a complex, and it is absolutely essential to know 
whether it is the social unit as such, or some element of the 
complex, that is really the prime mover in the “tenacity” ex- 
hibited. A few examples will make this point clear. The 
Melanesian societies exclude women. They are, however, 
in all cases associated with religious and ceremonial observances 
in which women do not participate. Now, is the “tenacity” that 
the societies exhibit with regard to the exclusion of women an 
expression of the nature of a “society” or is it historically the 
reflex expression of the religious and ceremonial observances 
associated with it ? Among the White-earth Ojibwa, an English- 
man or an American who marries into the tribe is enrolled in 
two new clans, the Lion and the Eagle, these animals having 
become associated in the Indian mind as clan totems with the 
respective people. That is, all the manifold differences of social 
organization between the Ojibwa and the whites play an insig- 
nificant role as compared with a grouping apparently determined 
by “religious” criteria. Strangers, like Dakota, who have no 
animal associated with them, have among the Ojibwa no social 
status. Among the Winnebago, again, if a new clan were to be 
adopted among them, its connexion with one or the other of the 
divisions would depend upon its clan animal. If the clan 
animal was a bird, it would immediately be placed in one of the 
divisions; if any other animal, it would belong to the other 
division. 
