This system of kinship in the familial clan is curious, because it holds real consanguinity very cheap, unhesitatingly confusing real with fictitious kinship, and thus forming classes of fictitious relations. It seems to prove the existence of an ancient period of promiscuity, during which there was scarcely any thought of determining with precision the degrees of consanguinity of individuals. Naturally, the first form of the family which was more or less vaguely outlined in the confused groups anterior to the familial clans, was the maternal family; but this system of filiation by classes is in no way incompatible with paternal filiation. Up to the present time kinship in the female line prevails among most of the Redskin tribes. Certain of them, however, are evolving in the direction of masculine filiation, and this movement was already commencing at the close of the last century.[947] The transformation began with the chiefs and more powerful men. Among the Thlinkits of Russian America the great men already give the paternal name to their children; but the poorer people are still in the stage of uterine filiation.[948] Certain tribes have quite recently adopted the system of paternal filiation. It is owing to European influence that this change is operating, and its accomplishment is only a question of time. The Ojibways have only taken two generations to effect the adoption of agnatic filiation.[949] A similar evolution was spontaneously accomplished in the great states of Central America. In Peru maternal filiation was still in general use, but the paternal family was beginning to appear. In the mass of the nation, says Gomara, the heritage was transmitted to nephews and not to sons; but in the family of the Incas direct male descendants alone had the right to avail themselves of their origin, and sons inherited.[950] It seems that in Mexico the familial evolution may have been more advanced, for there it is always the paternal personality which predominates, and it is the father who dictates to the children rules of conduct and moral precepts. The mothers exhort their daughters to be submissive to their husbands, to obey them and strive to please them. The familial customs which I have just described are general in America; they are not universal as regards exogamy, for Hearne tells us that many Chippeways frequently take to wife their sisters, daughters, and even mothers.[951] We know, on the other hand, that the Peruvian Incas married their sisters, and that throughout the Peruvian empire no one married outside the administrative district. In some parts of America the diversity is still greater. The Caribs married their relatives, with the exception of sisters,[952] indiscriminately; the Indians of Guiana, on the contrary, practised totemic exogamy, like the Redskins.[953]