If we confine ourselves to real kinship, we shall see that it is understood in a very wide manner. I will simply give, as a detailed example, a description of the family among the Iroquois Senecas and the Omahas. With the Iroquois Senecas, the direct line, both ascending and descending, is very short. It does not go farther than grandfather and grandmother, and grandson and grand-daughter. The more distant ancestors and descendants are all comprised without distinction in the same categories; they form groups of grandfathers or grandsons. In a collateral line, they proceed by groups, in the same manner. Thus, for a woman, the sons and daughters of a sister are reckoned as her own sons and daughters, and their children are her grandchildren. The collateral kinship is then confounded, at least in terminology, with kinship in a direct line. On the contrary, the sons and daughters of a woman’s brother are only her nephews and nieces. How can we explain this familial confusion on one side, and this distinction on the other? It may probably be attributed to the habit of the Redskins to marry a lot of sisters at the same time. A woman counts her sister’s children as her own, because the husband of that sister, whom we should call her brother-in-law, is virtually her husband also. Inversely, for a man, his brother’s children, or his fraternal nieces and nephews, are reckoned as his own children; their children are his grandsons or grand-daughters, whilst the children and grandchildren of his sister are only his nephews and nieces.[932] Following our previous line of reasoning, we are led to suppose that these denominations of kinship go back to a distant epoch, when brothers had their wives in common, but abstained from marrying their own sisters. This supposition is confirmed by the examination of the collateral ascending kinship. Thus, either in the case of a man or woman, the father’s brother, or the paternal uncle, is reckoned as the father, and his sons and daughters are reckoned as brothers and sisters.
The sisters of the father, or of any person bearing the title of father, are called aunts. The children of these aunts are cousins. For a man, the kinship of uncle is restricted to the brothers of the mother, and the children of these uncles are cousins. The mother’s sister, or the maternal aunt, is counted as a mother; her children are not nephews and nieces, but sons and daughters. All sisters, real or fictitious, are mutually mothers of all their children. The children of a man’s brothers are not his nephews and nieces, but his sons and daughters; his sisters’ children are his nephews and nieces,[933] probably because these names have been given at an epoch when the brothers married groups of sisters in common, but not their own sisters.
The Omaha Redskins distinguish the degrees of kinship almost in the same way as the Iroquois Senecas. For them also the most distant ascendants are all grandfathers or grandmothers. They class all their relations in groups, formed of individuals virtually brought together by similar degrees of consanguinity or alliance. Whole categories of individuals, more or less numerous, are called brothers or fathers of a man or woman; all those whom the father of a person calls brothers are fathers to that person; all those whom the mother of a woman calls husbands are also fathers to that woman. The name “mother” is given to all the women reputed as sisters to the mother, to the aunts or nieces of the mother, and also to the virtual wives of the father.
A man has virtually for wives all the wives of his brothers, and also their widows, on account of the levirate.
If a man has a brother-in-law who is at the same time the husband of a paternal aunt, the sister of that man is the grand-daughter of the brother-in-law.
A man becomes your brother-in-law if he is merely the husband of a paternal aunt, because he can marry your sister.
The husband of a daughter, of a niece, or of a grand-daughter, is a son-in-law.[934]
All the sons and all the daughters of persons reputed as fathers and mothers call each other brothers and sisters. All the wives, real or virtual, of the grandfather are called grandmothers; so are also all the mothers or grandmothers of the fathers and mothers, and all the women that the fathers and mothers call sisters.
A man counts as his sons all the sons of his brothers or of his virtual wives; but the sisters of these sons are his sisters. A woman calls the sons and daughters of her brothers her nephews and nieces, but the children of her sister are counted as her own children; because their father is virtually her husband.
Among the Omahas a man calls his sister’s children nephews and nieces. A person of either sex counts as grandchildren all those who are called the children of his sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces, or reputed as such.