SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF WINNEBAGO INDIANS. 
27 
individual cultures. Bonds other than descent from the animal 
are frequently found and must unquestionably be considered 
as older than the latter in a number of cases. On the Northwest 
Coast, among the Creek, Iroquois, and other tribes, descent 
from the totem is not found. Among the Winnebago themselves 
we find, in addition to the above, the idea that the Thunderbird 
clan takes its name from the fact that its members imitate the 
actions of that animal. Some versions of the origin myth give 
no reason at all for the name, while according to others an animal 
is killed and becomes reincarnated as a human being in a certain 
village, the group taking its name from this fact. The descent 
from the totem, however, where it has not been primary, owing 
to its being a reflex expression of the social organization, quite 
generally supplants the other interpretation. 
The Clan Tie. 
In intimate relation to the attitude toward the clan animal 
is the conception of the tie binding one member of the clan to 
another. In no case did an individual regard the bond between 
him and another member of the same clan as based upon descent 
from the same animal. Blood relationship was always given 
as the reason for exogamy, as is brought out by the word for 
clan ( hokik'aradjdra ). This concept of blood relationship was 
extended to the mother’s clan generation. As we have pointed 
out, there is no reason for assuming that blood relationship 
is the primary explanation. The number of explanations for 
exogamy existing between one clan and another, and that 
of the clans of one side as opposed to those of another, indicate 
clearly how readily interpretations of this phenomenon change. 
The Bear does not marry into the Wolf clan because they are 
friends {hitcak'oro ) , and does not marry into the Buffalo clan 
because it belongs to the same side, or no reason is assigned at all. 
Before the question of the clan tie can be thoroughly understood, 
the kind of blood relationship that is here meant must be more 
carefully defined. This is not a general but a very definite 
notion, and may be said not to extend beyond four generations, in 
fact, not beyond the direct knowledge of some living individual. 
