[19] Three out of four, to be exact; but two eastern areas, which are almost in contact and perhaps rather closely connected in history, are for convenience treated here as if they were one.
[20] It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that the association here found between the various elements of the exogamic complex would not conflict with patrilinear descent being on the whole the earlier and matrilinear the later phase to appear in each of the independent developments of the complex. Nor would it prevent each separate continental development from undergoing its own history of diffusion, as represented in § [185].
[21] It seems quite doubtful whether any American people held seven as a mystic number in pre-Columbian times. The case most frequently cited is that of the Zuñi. But these people had a Christian mission in their town for two centuries; they still employ four and six far more frequently than seven in their rituals; and their unmissionized neighbors the Hopi and Navaho esteem four or six but not seven. The other Indians stressing seven lived either on the Atlantic slope, such as the Delaware and Cherokee, and have therefore long been in contact with the colonists; or in the Plains—notably the Siouan tribes—and there came into direct and indirect relations with the French for two hundred years before ethnologists visited them. Moreover, the number which the Plains tribes most frequently used in regard to sacred matters was four. The mystic value of seven may therefore be traceable to European influence wherever it appears in America.
[22] Except perhaps for the fragments of the Baal Lebanon bowl.
[23] These areas are discussed further in the next chapter, especially in § [174].
[24] Mexico, Central America, and the coast and mountain parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
[25] Maize is the name of the plant in England, continental Europe, and Latin America. In the United States “corn,” short for Indian corn, is in current usage; but this word means grain or cereal in general.
[26] The contrary has been alleged. To dispose of the allegations seriatim would involve the minute examination of much evidence. Clan organization is here used in reference to arbitrary, named, intratribal exogamic groups to which the individual belongs inalienably by virtue of his birth, his descent being necessarily reckoned on one side only; and totemic phenomena being usually though not always associated with the group. A segregation of society into groups based primarily on blood kinship, co-residence, town quarters, occupation, social rank, or subordination to a chieftain is not a clan organization. Nor is the unilateral reckoning of descent a sufficient criterion. Our modern family names descend patrilineally without any historical connection between them and a clan organization. In general, statements as to the existence of clan systems in Middle America, at least among the advanced nations of Mexico and Peru, rest either on a loose use of terms; on the assumption that they must have existed at the time of discovery; or on a forward projection into the historic period of the belief that they had once existed. This belief is accepted here without such projection.
[27] Why the Southwest with its solid towns of a thousand and more inhabitants, its generally greater advancement, and proximity to Mexico, should never have progressed to larger political units, is not wholly clear. The reason may be that the Pueblo was a heavily ritualized culture, whose emphasis was on the priest, not the governor or councilor. Such government as the Pueblos had was distinctly theocratic. They were also disinclined to fight. Southeastern religion was quite simple in comparison, an important priesthood lacking, and the warlike spirit rather strong.
[28] The kiva or estufa of the Southwest, a ceremonial chamber, is a partial exception. Yet even it differs from the living room of the same region chiefly in use. Structurally it may be somewhat larger, or circular instead of rectangular, but does not depart widely from the dwellings. Functionally it is a development of the primitive “men’s house,” not a temple.