The scientific study of human society / by Franklin Henry Giddings.

  • Giddings, Franklin Henry, 1855-1931.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The scientific study of human society / by Franklin Henry Giddings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The clan cherished traditions, enforced ex¬ ogamy, and redressed injuries suffered by its members at the hands of outsiders. In North American Indian clans there were (and are) councils in which both men and women par¬ ticipated, and elderly wise men called sachems to whom deference was paid. These features are found in many parts of the world. In Asia and in Europe, and perhaps else¬ where, nearly related gentiles who could trace and prove their lineage for four or five genera¬ tions often lived together as a joint family or as a hamlet, and held property of certain kinds in joint possession. This organization persists in India, and surviving examples of it are found in Russia and in Southeastern Europe. A kin-and-kith group large enough to people a village or a vicinage, and constituted of clans or not, was a tribe. Often it spoke a distinctive dialect and usually it had a simple organization for war, consisting of a council of braves and a chief or chieftains. Not in¬ frequently a tribe was (and is) dual, consisting of two similar divisions or moieties each con¬ stituted of clans. Matrilineal tribes have usu¬ ally been constituted of totemic kindreds and have lived by hunting and fishing supplemented by the rude agriculture that was possible be¬ fore the plow was invented. The line between