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Show IQOO] ESKIMO AND PACIFIC theory of the evolution of the family\ In this tribe, clan and family crests, names, and privileges are an inheritance, and are held by a man either in his own right, derived directly from his father, or in trust for his children, and derived from his father- in- law through his wife. ^ There are thus two sets of inheritances existing side by side, and the complexity of the social organization in a tribe diminishing in mimbers like the Kwakiutl is too baffling to unravel. :\ n economic development among these tribes which is of great interest and to which insufficient attention has been paid hitherto is the so- called " potlatch."* This is at first glance a ceremonial giving away of property, and as such has been misunderstood and actively combated by missionaries and government agents on the ground that it pauperized the natives. It is in reality an elaborate and beneficial system of credit. In any undertaking the Indian calls upon his friends for help in the shape of loans. These are always repaid with interest at a later date, and, owing to lack of a system of writing, such payments or repayments are always made publicly, to give security to the transaction. " This public negotiation, which is conducted with elaborate ceremonial and feasting, is the potlatch. The unit of value is the blanket, valued at fifty cents, and as the amount of property owned in every tribe greatly exceeds the number of blankets actually in existence there, a set of economic con- 1 Boas, Social Organisation of the Kwakiutl Indians, 341. • OL. 11.- 4 |