Kinship and Social Organisation

by W. H. R. Rivers

A stronger case is presented by the terminology of three branches of the Cree tribe, also recorded by Morgan. In all three systems, one term, ne-sis or nee-sis, is used for the mother’s brother, the father’s sister’s husband, the wife’s father and the husband’s father; while the term nis-si-goos applies to the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife and the two kinds of mother-in-law. These usages are exactly such as would follow from the cross-cousin marriage. The terms for the sister’s son of a man and the brother’s son of a woman, however, differ from those used for the son-in-law, and there is also no correspondence between the terms for cross-cousin and any kind of brother- or sister-in-law. The case points more definitely to the cross-cousin marriage than in the case of the Red Knives, but yet lacks the completeness which would allow us to make the inference with confidence.

The Assiniboin have a common term, me-toh-we, used for the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife and the two kinds of mother-in-law, and also a common term, me-nake-she, for the mother’s brother and the father’s sister’s husband, but the latter differs from the word, me-to-ga-she, used for the father of husband or wife. The case here is decidedly stronger than among the Red Knives, but is less complete than among the Crees.

Among a number of branches of the Dakotas the evidence is of a different kind, being derived from similar nomenclature for the cross-cousin and certain kinds of brother- and sister-in-law. Morgan[23] has recorded eight systems, all of which show the features in question, but I will consider here only that of the Isauntie or Santee Dakotas, which was collected for him by the Rev. S. R. Riggs. Riggs[24] and Dorsey[25] have given independent accounts of this system which are far less complete than that given by Morgan, but agree with it in all essentials.

In this system a man calls the son of his mother’s brother or of his father’s sister ta-hang-she or tang-hang-she, while his wife’s brother and his sister’s husband are ta-hang or tang-hang. Similarly, a woman calls her cross-cousin she-chay-she, while her husband’s brother and her sister’s husband are called she-chay. The terms for brothers-in-law are thus the same as those for cross-cousins with the omission of the suffix she. One of these resemblances, that when a woman is speaking, has been cited by Professor Kroeber[26] as an example of the psychological causation of such features of relationship as I am considering in these lectures. He rejects its dependence on the cross-cousin marriage and refers the resemblance to the psychological similarity between a woman’s cousin and her brother-in-law in that both are collateral relatives alike in sex, of the same generation as the speaker, but different from her in sex.

As we have seen, however, the Dakota correspondence is not an isolated occurrence, but fits in with a number of other features of the systems of cognate peoples to form a body of evidence pointing to the former prevalence of the cross-cousin marriage.

There is also indirect evidence leading in the same direction. In Melanesia there is reason to believe that the cross-cousin marriage stands in a definite relation to another form of marriage, that with the wife of the mother’s brother. If there should be evidence for the former existence of this marriage in North America, it would increase the probability in favour of the cross-cousin marriage.

Among a number of peoples, some of whom form part of the Sioux, including the Minnitarees, Crows, Choctas, Creeks, Cherokees and Pawnees, cross-cousins are classed with parents and children exactly as in the Banks Islands, and exactly as in those islands, it is the son of the father’s sister who is classed with the father, and the children of the mother’s brother who are classed with sons or daughters. Further, among the Pawnees the wife of the mother’s brother is classed with the wife, a feature also associated with the peculiar nomenclature for cross-cousins in the Banks Islands. The agreement is so close as to make it highly probable that the American features of relationship have been derived from a social institution of the same kind as that to which the Melanesian features are due, and that it was once the custom of these American peoples to marry the wife of the mother’s brother. Here, as in the case of the cross-cousin marriage itself, the case rests entirely upon the terminology of relationship, but we cannot ignore the association in neighbouring parts of North America of features of relationship which would be the natural consequence of two forms of marriage which are known to be associated together elsewhere.

I am indebted to Miss Freire-Marreco for the information that the Tewa of Hano, a Pueblo tribe, call the father’s sister’s son tada, a term otherwise used for the father, thus suggesting that they also may once have practised marriage with the wife of the mother’s brother. The use of this term, however, is only one example of a practice whereby all the males of the father’s clan are called tada, irrespective of age and generation. The common nomenclature for the father and the father’s sister’s son among the Tewa thus differs in character from the apparently similar nomenclature of the Banks Islands and cannot have been determined directly, perhaps not even remotely, by marriage with the wife of the mother’s brother. This raises the question whether the nomenclature of the Sioux has not arisen out of a practice similar to that of the Tewa. The terms for other relatives recorded by Morgan show some evidence of the widely generalised use of the Tewa, but such a use cannot account for the classing of the wife of the mother’s brother with the wife which occurs among the Pawnees. Nevertheless, the Tewa practice should keep us alive to the possibility that the Sioux nomenclature may depend on some social condition different from that which has been effective in the Banks Islands in spite of the close resemblance between the two.

The case for the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage will be much strengthened if this form of marriage should occur elsewhere in North America. So far as I am aware, the only people among whom it has been recorded are the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island.[27] It is a far cry from this outpost of North American culture to Dakota, but it may be noted that it is among the Crees who formerly lived in the intermediate region of Manitoba and Assiniboia that the traces of the cross-cousin marriage are most definite. This mode of distribution of the peoples whose terminology of relationship bears evidence of the cross-cousin marriage suggests that other intermediate links may yet be found. Though the existing evidence is inconclusive, it should be sufficient to stimulate a search for other evidence which may make it possible to decide whether or no the cross-cousin marriage was once a widespread practice in North America.

I can only consider one other kind of marriage here. The discovery of so remarkable a union as that with the daughter’s daughter in Pentecost and the evidence pointing to a still more remarkable marriage between those having the status of grandparent and grandchild in Fiji and Buin have naturally led me to look for similar evidence elsewhere in Melanesia. Though there is nothing conclusive, conditions are to be found here and there which suggest the former existence of such marriages.