While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The foundation of social
organization, and hence of government, the tangible form of social
organization, was originally the bond of real and, legal blood
kinship. The recognition and perpetuation of the ties of blood
kinship were the first important steps in the permanent social
organization of society.
Among the North American Indians kinship is primarily the relation
subsisting between two or more persons whose blood is derived from
common ancestors through lawful marriage. Persons between who in
kinship subsists are called kin or kindred. Kinship may be lineal or
collateral. By birth through the natural order of descent kindred are
divided into generations or categories, which represent lineally and
collaterally relationships or degrees of kinship, which in turn are
sometimes modified by the age and the sex of the persons so affected.
In noting the degrees of kinship in the direct line all systems appear
to agree in assigning one degree to a generation. Thus is developed a
complex system of relationships. The extent and the complexity of the
system in any case vary with
the social organization of the people. These degrees of kinship may
be called relationships, and they define more or less clearly the
station, rights, and obligations of the several individuals of the
kinship group specified. The distinction between relationship and
kinship must not be confused, for there are persons who are related
but who do not belong to the same kin.
In speaking of the entire body of a group of kindred it is necessary
that reference he made to some person", the propositus, as the
starting point. In general every person belongs naturally to two
distinct families (see Family) or kinship groups, namely, that of the
father and that of the mother. These two groups of kindred, which
before his birth were entirely distinct for the purposes of marriage
and the inheritance of property and certain other rights, privileges,
and obligations, unite in his person and thereafter form only
subdivisions of his general group of kindred, and both these groups
share with him the rights, privileges, and obligations of kindred.
There are two radically different methods of naming these
relationships; the one is called the classificatory, the other the
descriptive method. In the descriptive phrase the actual relationship
becomes a matter of implication, that is, the relationship is made
specific either by the primary terms of relationship or by a
combination of them. Under the first, kindred are never described, but
are classified into categories and the same term of relationship
is applied to every person belonging to the same category. In the
descriptive system of naming kinship degrees there is usually found a
number of classificatory terms.
There has been prevalent hitherto among many ethnologists the opinion
that the tracing of descent through the paternal line is in most cases
a development from the system of tracing descent exclusively through
females, and that, therefore, the latter system is antecedent and more
primitive than the former. But it is not at all clear that there has
been adduced in support of this contention any conclusive evidence
that it is a fact or that either system has been transformed from the
other; but it is evident that such an improbable procedure would have
caused the disregard and rupture of a vast body of tabus-of tabus
among the "lost sacred known, namely, the tabus of incest.
The kinship system in vogue among the
Klamath Indians of California
and Oregon is apparently typical of those tribes in which, like the
Kiowa, both the clan and the gentile systems of kinship are wanting.
This lack of either system, so far as known; is characteristic of
nearly all the tribes of the plains, the Pacific slope, and the
northwest coast. The Klamath system recognizes only two degrees in
ascending above and only two in descending below the propositus in
the direct line, and four collateral degrees of the paternal line,
that of father's brothers, that of father's uncles, and then that of
father's sisters and that of father's aunts; and four collateral
degrees of the maternal line, that of mother's sisters, that of
mother's aunts, that of mother's brothers, and that of mother's
uncles, or eight collateral degrees in all. Hence in reckoning
descent below himself in the direct line the offspring of propositus
recognizes one degree of kinship below the lower of the two admitted
by his father; but in the ascending direct line, the offspring of propositus does not recognize as a relation the higher of the two
admitted by his father. So that in this system the circle of
relationships shifts with the person selected as the starting point of
the reckoning. The father recognizes relations which his child does
not admit, and the child recognizes relations which the father does
not admit.
Where the blood ties appear to be so limited and so disregarded in the
social organization, the cohesion of the tribe is accomplished more or
less satisfactorily through military, religious, or other societies, in North America those tribes among whom the clan system prevailed,
with the tracing of descent through the female line, became the most
important peoples of modern times. The Five Civilized Tribes of
Oklahoma and the Iroquois peoples are examples of this.
Among the Omaha a man must not marry in his own gens. A law of
membership requires that a child belong to its father's gens. This is
descent in the male line, but children of white or black persons
(Negroes) belong to the gens of the mother, into which they are
forbidden to marry. Moreover, a stranger can not belong to any gens of
the tribe because there is no ceremony of adoption into a gens. A man
is prohibited from marrying a woman of the gens of his father, as the
women of this gens are his grandmothers, aunt, sisters, nieces,
daughters, or granddaughters. For the same reason he can not marry a
woman of the gens of his father's mother, but he can marry a woman
belonging to any other gens of his paternal grandmother's phratry, as
she would not be of his kindred.
Consanguineous or blood kinship embraces not only the gens of the
father, but also that of the mother and grandmothers, and these
kindred with reference to a man fall into fourteen groups,
and with reference to a woman into fifteen groups.
Among the Omaha, within the phratry in which gentes exist, those who
occupy the one side of the fire are not regarded as full kindred by
those occupying the other side of the fire, and they are prohibited
from intermarrying. But were it not for the institution of these
gentes or quasi-kindred groups within the phratries, a male would be
compelled to marry outside of his tribe, for the reason that all the
women of the tribe would otherwise be his kindred through the previous
intermarriages among the ten original "gentes" or phratries.
The Omaha kinship system may be taken as typical of the gentile
organization, tracing descent through the male line. In this system
the relationships are highly complex and the terms, or rather their
approximate English equivalents, denotive of these relationships are
employed with considerable latitude and in quite a different manner
from their use in English. For example: If the propositus be a male or
a female, he or she would call all men his or her 'fathers' whom his
or her father would call 'brothers', or whom his or her mother would
call her potential 'husbands.' he or she would call all women his or
her 'mothers' whom his or her mother would call 'sisters', 'aunts',
or 'nieces', or whom his or her father would call his potential
'wives.' Moreover, he or she would call all men 'brothers' who are the
sons of such fathers or mothers, and their sisters would be his or her
'sisters.' he or she would call all men his or her 'grandfathers' who
are the fathers or grandfathers of his or her fathers or mothers, or
whom his or her fathers or mothers would call their mothers'
'brothers.' he or she would also call all women his or her
'grandmothers' who are the real or potential wives of his or her
grandfathers, or who are the mothers or grandmothers of his or her
fathers or mothers, or whom his or her fathers would call their
fathers 'sisters.'
If the propositus be a male he would call all males his 'sons' who are
the sons of his brothers or of his potential wives, and the sisters of
these sons are his 'daughters.' If the propositus be a female person
she would call all children of her sisters her 'children', because
their father is or their fathers are her potential or actual husband
or husbands; and site would call those males her 'nephews' who are the
sons of her brothers, and the daughters of her brothers would be her
`nieces.'
If the propositus be a male, he would call his sister's son his
'nephew' and her daughter his 'niece'; but whether male or female, the propositus would call all finale and female persons who are the
children of his sons, daughters, nephews, or nieces,' 'grandchildren';
and, in like manner, he or she would call all men 'uncles' whom his
or her mothers would call their 'brothers', and would call all female
persons 'aunts' who are his or her father's sisters as well as those
who are the wives of his or her uncles. But the father's sisters'
husbands of a male person are his brothers-in-law, because they are
the actual or potential husbands of his sisters; and when the propositus is a female person they are her actual or potential
husbands.
Any female person whom a man's own wife calls 'elder sister' or
'younger sister', her father's sister, or her brother's daughter is
his potential wife.
Any male person whom a man's wife would call 'elder brother' or
`younger brother' is his brother-in-law; also any other male person
who is the brother of his wife's niece or of his brother's wife. But
his wife's father's brother is his grandfather, not his brother-in-law,
although his sister is his potential wife. When his brother-in-law is
the husband of his father's sister or of his own sister, his sister is
his grandchild, and not his potential wife. A male person is the
brother-in-law of a man if he be the husband of the sister of the
other's father, since that man could marry his (the other's own)
sister, but his aunt's husband is not his brother-in-law when he is
his own uncle or his mother's brother. Any male person is the
brother-in-law of the man whose sister is his wife. But since his
sister's niece's husband is his sister's potential or actual husband,
he is his son-in-law, because he is his daughter's husband.
A male or female person would call any male person his or her
'son-in-law' who is the husband of his or her daughter, niece, or
grandchild, and his father is his or her son-in-law. When a male
person or a female person would call the father of his or her
daughter-in-law his or her 'grandfather,' her brother is his or her
grandson.
A male or female person would call any other female person who is the
wife of his or her son, nephew, or grandson, his or her
'daughter-in-law'; and the mother of his or her son-in-law is so
called by him or her.
The father, mother's brother, or grandfather of a man's wife, of his
potential wife, or of his daughter-in-law (the last being the wife of
his son, nephew, or grandson) is the grandfather (or father-in-law) of
that mail. Any female person who is the mother, mother's sister, or
grandmother of a man's wife, of his potential wife, or of his
daughter-in-law (a wife of his son, nephew, or of his grandson) is the grandmother (or mother-in-law) of that,
man.
By the institution of either the clan (q. V. ) or the gens system of
determining and fixing degrees of relationship, kinship through males
or through females acquired increased importance, because under
either form of organization it signified 'clan kin' or 'gentile
kin' in contradistinction to non-gentile kin. The members of either
were all organized body of consanguinei bearing a common clan or
gentile name, and were bound together by ties of blood and by the further bond of mutual rights, privileges, and obligations
characteristic of the clan or the gens. In either case, 'clan kin' or
'gentile kin' became superior to other kin, because it invested its
members with the rights, privileges, and obligations of the clan or
gens.
Where a man calls his mother's sister 'mother', and she in turn
calls him her 'son', although she did not in fact give him birth, the
relationship must in strictness he defined as a marriage relationship
and not as a blood relationship. Under the clan or the gentile system
of relationships kinship was traced equally through males and through
females, but a broad distinction was made between the paternal and the
maternal kindred, and the rights, privileges, and obligations of the
members of the line through which descent was traced were far more
real and extensive than were those of the other line. Among North
American Indians kinship through males was recognized just as
constantly as kinship through females. There were brothers and
sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers, grandsons and granddaughters,
traced through males as well as through females. While the mother
of a child was readily ascertainable, the father was not, but because
of this uncertainty, kinship through males was not therefore rejected,
and probable fathers, probable brothers, and probable sons were placed
in the category of real fathers, real brothers, and real sons.
In every Iroquois community the degree of security and of distinction
which every member of the community enjoyed, depended chiefly on the
number, the wealth, and the power of his kindred, hence the tie
uniting the members of the kinship group was not lightly or
arbitrarily broken.
It appears that where the clan organization is in vogue the adoption
(q. v.) of alien persons was customary.
With descent in the female line a male person
had in his clan grandfathers and grandmothers, mothers, brothers and
sisters, uncles, rarely nephews and nieces, and grandsons and
granddaughters, some lineal and some collateral; at the same time, with the exception of
uncles, he had the same relationships outside of his clan, and
fathers, aunts, sons and daughters, and cousins, in addition. A woman
had the same relationships in the clan as a man, and in addition sons
and daughters; and at the same time she had the same relationships
outside of her clan as had the man.
In certain communities there are terms in use applied to polyandrous
and polygynous marriage relations. For instance, in Klamath the terns
p`tcekē'p' denotes
(1) the relationship of the two or more wives of a
man, and
(2) the relationship of two or more men (who may be brothers)
who marry sisters or a single woman among them.
And in the
Cree the term n' t'ri
âuim, employed by both men and women, signifies 'my
(sexual) partner'; for example, a wife will apply this terns to the cowife of the husband or husbands; and the terns
nikusâk is applied
by one man to another with whom he shares a wife or wives, or to whom he has loaned his own wife. This term is employed also as a term
of friendship among men.
The distinction between one's own father and mother and the other
persons so called was sometimes marked by the use of an explanatory
adjective, 'real,' 'true,' or the like; sometimes by calling all the
others 'little fathers' or 'little mothers.'
The following chart, which applies especially to the
Haida, may be
taken as typical of a two-clan system with female descent, self being
male:
In paternal succession analogous
series of terms of relationship develop.
The persons belonging to one's own clan being accounted
blood relations, marriage with any of them was not permitted, and where
there were many clans this prohibition usually extended to the father's
clans also. After marriage, terms of affinity corresponding to
'father-in-law,' and 'sister-in-law,' were applied not only to persons who
could be so designated in English, but to all members of the same clans of
corresponding age and sex as well. Where there were but two clans
the terms of affinity might be applied to those who had previously been known as uncles, aunts, uncles' children, nephews, and
nieces, is indicated in the above table.
Where clans did not exist blood relationship was recognized on both sides
as far as the connection could be remembered, and marriage with any person
within this circle was, generally speaking, less usual than with one
entirely outside, though such marriages were not everywhere prohibited,
and in some cases were actually preferred. There was the sauce custom,
however, of extending the terms of relationship to groups of individuals,
such as the brothers of one's father, and the sisters of one's mother.
Among the Salish tribes of British Columbia, who appear to have had a
special fondness for recording genealogies, the number of terms of
relationship is very greatly increased. Thus four or even five generations
back of that of the parents and below that of the children are marked by
distinct terms, and there are distinguishing terms for the first, second,
third, and youngest child, and for the uncle, aunt, etc., according as
one's father, mother, or other relative through whom the relationship
exists is living or dead, and different terms for a living and a dead
wife. There are thus 25 terms of relationship among the Lillooet, 28 among
the Shuswap, and 31 among the Squawmish. By way of illustration, the
kinship system of the last-mentioned tribe is subjoined (see Boas in Rep.
on N. W. Tribes of Can., 136, 1890):
1. Direct relationship. Haakweyuk, great-great-great grandparent or great
great-great grandchild; tsopeyuk, great-great-grandparent
or great-great-grandchild; stshamik, great-grandparent or
great-grandchild; seel, grandfather, grandmother, great-uncle, or
great-aunt; emats, grandchild, grandnephew, or grandniece; man, father;
chisha, mother; men, child; seentl, eldest child;
anontatsh, second child;
menchechit, third child; saut, youngest child; kupkuopits, brothers,
sisters, and cousins together; kuopits, elder brother or sister, or
father's or mother's elder brother's or sister's child; skak,
younger brother or sister, or father's or mother's younger brother's or
sister's child snchoitl, cousin.
2. Indirect relationship.
(A) When the intermediate relative is alive: sisi, father's or
mother's brother or sister; staeatl, brother's or sister's child;
chemash,
wife's or husband's cousin, brother, or sister; or cousin's brother's or
sister's wife or husband; saak, son-in-law, daughter-in-law,
father-in-law, or mother-in-law; skuewas, any relative of a I)usharnl or
wife.
(B) When the intermediate relative is dead: uotsaeqoitl, father's
or mother's brother or sister; suinemaitl, brother's or sister's child;
chaiae, wife's or husband's cousin, brother, or sister, or cousin's
brother's or sister's wife or husband; slikoaitl, son-in-law, daughter-in-law,
father-in-law, or mother-in-law.
3. Indirect affinity Skseel, wife's grandfather or grandmother, or
stepfather's, stepmother's father or mother; skaman, aunt's husband or
stepfather; skechisha, uncle's wife or stepmother; skemen, stepchild;
skemats, grandson's or granddaughter's wife or husband; skesaak, wife's
or husband's stepfather or stepmother, or stepchild's husband or wife.
It will be noted that many of these are reciprocal terms, and such were
very common in Indian kinship systems, used between persons of different
generations, as above, or sometimes between persons of opposite, sex of
the same generation, such as husband and wife. Out of 14 terms in Klamath
and Modoc 11 are reciprocal. On the other hand, persons of different sexes
will often indicate the same relative, such as a father or a mother, by
entirely different terms, and different terms are applied to those of a
person's own phratry and to members of the opposite one, while the
Iroquois use, the equivalent for 'brother' for persons inside and outside
the tribe indiscriminately. In all tribes, no matter how organized, a
distinction is made between the elder and the younger members of the
generation of self, at least between older and younger members of the same
sex.
The terms corresponding to 'grandfather' and `grandmother,' except among a
few peoples, like the Salish, were extended to all those of a generation
older than that of the parents and sometimes even to persons of that
generation, while the term for 'grandchild' was applied to very young
people by old ones quite indiscriminately. There were also terms to
indicate the potential relationship of husband and wife, applied by a man
to his wife's sisters, his aunt, or his niece, not because she was or had
been, but because she might become, his wife, as usually happens to the
wife's sister after the wife's death.
Besides the natural import of terms of kinship, they were employed
metaphorically in a great number of ways, as to
indicate respect, to avoid the use of a man's personal name, to indicate
tho clan or phratry to which a person belonged, or to indicate the
possession of special privileges. Naturally enough, they often took the
place of clan or even tribal designations, a fact which undoubtedly has
led to serious errors in attempts to trace the history of Indian tribes.
Again, they were applied to animals or supernatural beings, and with the Haida this use was intended to mark the fact that the being in question belonged to such and such a, phratry or that a representation of it was
used as a crest in that phratry. As this classification of animals by
phratries or clans is often traced back to the intermarriage of a human
being and an animal, we have an extension of the idea of kinship quite
beyond any civilized conceptions. See Clan and
Gens, Family,
Social Organization.
