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Show 196 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 relation may be one of descent from or kindred with the particular animal or plant, or there may be no notion of consanguinity. All those who claim this special relationship with a given totem are regarded as kin and as standing in the same degree of kinship to each other. This totemic clan is a fundamental Indian institution, and appears everywhere in North America, except in the far north, on the plateaus, at certain points on the Pacific coast, and among a few tribes of the plains. Alongside the numerous important features of the clan organization, which vary in detail in different parts of the continent, stands out the principle that each clansman has a double relationship: a religious one to his totem, and a social one to his fellow - members of the group. Perhaps the most striking feature of the social aspect,\ feature which is inflexible and shows no tendency to variation, is the law of exogamy with respect to the clan: members of the same totem group must not marry; violation of this rule was ordinarily punished with death. ^ Since the parents of an Indian could not be of the same clan, it was necessary for one of them to be disregarded in determining the clan or totem of the new- born child; and it was generally the father who was passed over, and the child was assigned to the clan of the mother. This is " female inheritance," and is a custom from which much has been inferred with regard to the early development of the family. |