[511] Loc. cit., p. 448.
[512] It is well to notice here that the isolation of families was closely connected with the isolation of both sexes. The men were in contact only with their wives and perhaps with their near female relatives. That this isolation cannot be due to motives of sexual jealousy is certain; it is in great part due to the dread of evil magic. But to work out this question would lead us too far. Compare Howitt, Nat. Tr., pp. 776, 777.
[513] Compare, for instance, Morgan, Systems, pp. 108 sqq. For other examples see below, [pp. 199] sqq. Sir Laurence Gomme writes: "One of our greatest difficulties, indeed, is the indiscriminate use of kinship terms by our descriptive authorities."—Loc. cit., p. 235.
[514] This would be the place to point out the biological meaning of the social aspects of kinship and family; whether, e. g. the different social regulations of sexual intercourse, which in higher societies afford the basis to kinship, the different forms of family and kinship are the expression of biological laws. How far such would be possible could only be decided on the basis of a biological knowledge which the present writer does not possess.
[515] Of course by result is meant a general formula for kinship.
[516] In reference to Dr. Rivers' article, compare [pp. 6, 7].
[517] In some cases, when the position of the father is very subordinate in the family and his relation to the mother and her children is a very loose one—it seems doubtful whether the existence of the individual family (in the sense here defined) can be accepted (compare, for examples of such peoples, Dr. Westermarck, H.H.M., p. 109, and Sir Laurence Gomme, loc. cit., pp. 231, 232). In these cases the necessary condition for individual paternal kinship according to our theory would be lacking.
[518] This definition may appear a commonplace and a truism, a mere formulation of what is obvious to every one at first sight. But it is liable to this objection only when taken formally, i. e. when only its form is considered, because it contains in the words parental group (individual family) the substance of all that has been said in the preceding pages about this social unit; and the other terms of the definition (collective ideas and collective feelings) will be determined more in detail in the following discussion.
[519] Legal adoption being set apart as a case which only partly establishes the kinship relations.
[520] It seems hardly necessary to emphasize that for physiological consanguinity as such, pure and simple, there is no room in sociological science.