| OCR Text |
Show ii2 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1900 totemic designs of a similar nature are painted on the sides and roofs of the houses. From the point of view of culture, however, the most important characteristic of these Indians is their system of social organization, which is close and strictly guarded.' In the north the tribes are divided into clans, each of which has its animal totem, and the clan relationship is traced through the mother. 1 The clans are further gathered into phratries, or groups, which are probably subdivisions of what were formerly single clans, and within these phratries marriage is forbidden. The system is most rigid in the northern tribes, but shows signs of weakening in the southern peoples. For instance, a new- born child whose father's clan has become weak in numbers may under certain circumstances and with appropriate ceremonial be entered as a member of the paternal clan when he would normally belong to that of his mother. Among the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island we find an interesting case of a people originally organized on a system reckoning descent through the father, who have come under the influence of maternal institutions, and adopted them in a way directly contrary to what is classically considered the usual course of development of the family and society. 3 This state of things, if correctly interpreted, has a most important bearing on the general 1 See below, chap. xiii. " Boas, Social Organization of the Kwakiutl Indians, 334. |
