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Functions of Civil Government
Functions of Civil Government
It is the function of government to preserve
rights and enforce the performance of
duties. Rights and duties are co-relative.
Rights imply duties, and duties imply
rights. The right inhering in the party of
the first part imposes a duty on the party
of the second part. The right and its
co-relative duty are inseparable parts of a
relation that must be maintained by
government; and the relations which
governments are established to maintain may
be treated under the general head of rights.
In Wyandot government these rights may be
classed as follows:
First—Rights of marriage.
Second—Rights to names.
Third—Rights to personal adornments.
Fourth—Rights of order in encampments and
migrations.
Fifth—Rights of property.
Sixth—Rights of person.
Seventh—Rights of community.
Eighth—Rights of religion.
To maintain rights, rules of conduct are
established, not by formal enactment, but by
regulated usage. Such custom-made laws may
be called regulations.
Marriage
Regulations
Marriage between members of the same gens is
forbidden, but consanguineal marriages
between persons of different gentes are
permitted. For example, a man may not marry
his mother’s sister’s daughter, as she
belongs to the same gens with himself; but
he can marry his father’s sister’s daughter,
because she belongs to a different gens.
Husbands retain all their rights and
privileges in their own gentes, though they
live with the gentes of their wives.
Children, irrespective of sex, belong to the
gens of the mother. Men and women must marry
within the tribe. A woman taken to wife from
without the tribe must first be adopted into
some family of a gens other than that to
which the man belongs. That a woman may take
for a husband a man without the tribe he
must also be adopted into the family of some
gens other than that of the woman. What has
been called by some ethnologists endogamy
and exogamy are correlative parts of one
regulation, and the Wyandot, like all other
tribes of which we have any knowledge in
North America, are both endogamous and
exogamous.
Polygamy is permitted, but the wives must
belong to different gentes. The first wife
remains the head of the household. Polyandry
is prohibited.
A man seeking a wife consults her mother,
sometimes direct, and sometimes through his
own mother. The mother of the girl advises
with the women councilors to obtain their
consent, and the young people usually submit
quietly to their decision. Sometimes the
women councilors consult with the men.
When a girl is betrothed, the man makes such
presents to the mother as he can. It is
customary to consummate the marriage before
the end of the moon in which the betrothal
is made. Bridegroom and bride make promises
of faithfulness to the parents and women
councilors of both parties. It is customary
to give a marriage feast, in which the
gentes of both parties take part. For a
short time at least, bride and groom live
with the bride’s mother, or rather in the
original household of the bride.
The time when they will set up housekeeping
for themselves is usually arranged before
marriage.
In the event of the death of the mother, the
children belong to her sister or to her
nearest female kin, the matter being settled
by the council women of the gens. As the
children belong to the mother, on the death
of the father the mother and children are
cared for by her nearest male relative until
subsequent marriage.
Indian
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Wyandot Government
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