Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Catalogue of the Mayer Museum / by Charles T. Gatty. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![Section H,—Leicester, 1907.] Some Sociological Definitions. By W. H. R. Rivers, M.D. Anthropology has now reached a stage in its development in which it has become imperative that its technical terms should acquire definite meanings, and some kind of collective action is necessary to do what is possible towards obtain- ing general agreement in the use of such terms. The following are to be regarded merely as suggestions for the use of any body which may undertake the task of defining terms on the sociological side of anthropology. I will begin with the terms for the different divisions of society. Tribe.—A group of a simple kind occupying a circumscribed area which has a common language, common government, and common action in warfare, &c. The words ‘ of a simple kind ’ are inserted in order to distinguish the tribe from the nation. Sept.— The social group for which there is at present the greatest diversity of nomenclature is the exogamous section of a tribe, the chief terms in use being clan, gens, sept, and totem-kin. The last term is open to the objection that there is no difference from the social point of view between a section of a tribe which takes its name from a totem, and one which has a designation of some other kind. The term clan is perhaps the most widely used, but is rejected by some, and it will probably be least disturbing to adopt the term sept, which cannot be said at present to have any definitely recognised meaning. Phratry.—A division of a tribe larger than the sept, as in North America, including two or more septs (though it may sometimes happen that, owiDg to the disappearance of septs, a phratry may have only one sept). Moiety.—When there are only two phratries, and they are exogamous, so that a member of one division must marry a member of the other, the divisions may be called moieties. Class.—This term should he limited to the matrimonial classes of the Austra- lians, or to any similar groups which may he found elsewhere. Caste.—This is not always easy to distinguish from the tribe even in India, but it may he defined as a section of a larger community which stands in definite relations to other similar sections, which usually has an occupational basis and a definite, rule of endogamy. Family.—This term should be limited to the group consisting of parents and children. The term ‘extended family’ may be used for a group of persons descended from the same grandfather or grandmother or more distant progenitor (i.e. where the descent can he demonstrated genealogically and is not mythical as is often the case with the sept). Occasionally the sept and the extended family may correspond with one another. Kin and Kinship.—These terms should he limited to the relationship set up by ties of blood which can he demonstrated genealogically. Sib and Sibship.—The old word sib may he used for the relationship set up by membership of the sept. Terms connected with Marriage and Descent. Those suggested by Mr. Thomas in his ‘Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia ’ may be adopted, with possibly the modification that the supplementary unions which make it necessary to distinguish between similar and dissimilar polyandry and polygyny might be separated from marriage proper, those in which a man has supplementary partners being called concubinage, while those in which a woman has supplementary partners are called cicisbeism. Mother-right —This might he adopted as a convenient term for a state of society in which there are two or all of the three conditions, matrilineal descent, matrilocal marriage, and matripotestal family. PRINTED BY SFOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE LON DON](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22473130_0133.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
