We are indebted to Mr. Lewis H. Morgan for information as to the
names of various degrees of kinship among no fewer than 139 different
races or tribes. This collection shows that very many peoples have
a nomenclature of relationships quite different from our own. Mr.
Morgan divides the systems into two great classes, the descriptive
and the classificatory, which he regards as radically distinct. “The
first,” he says, “which is that of the Aryan, Semitic, and Uralian
families, rejecting the classification of kindred, except so far as
it is in accordance with the numerical system, describes collateral
consanguinei, for the most part, by an augmentation or combination of
the primary terms of relationship. These terms, which are those for
husband and wife, father and mother, brother and sister, and son and
daughter, to which must be added, in such languages as possess them,
grandfather and grandmother, and grandson and granddaughter, are thus
restricted to the primary sense in which they are here employed. All
other terms are secondary. Each relationship is thus made independent
and distinct from every other. But the second, which is that of the
Turanian, American Indian, and Malayan families, rejecting descriptive
phrases in every instance, and reducing consanguinei to great classes,
by a series of apparently arbitrary generalizations, applies the
same terms to all the members of the same class. It thus confounds
relationships, which, under the descriptive system, are distinct, and
enlarges the signification both of the primary and secondary terms
beyond their seemingly appropriate sense.”[435]
The most primitive form of the classificatory group is the system
of the “Malayan family,”[436] which prevails among the Hawaiians,
Kingsmill Islanders, Maoris, and, presumably, also among several
other Polynesian and Micronesian tribes.[437] According to this
system, all consanguinei, near and remote, are classified into five
categories. My brothers and sisters and my first, second, third, and
more remote male and female cousins, are the first category. To all
these without distinction I apply the same term. My father and mother,
together with their brothers and sisters, and their first, second, and
more remote cousins, are the second category. To all these without
distinction I apply likewise the same term. The brothers, sisters, and
several cousins of my grandparents I denominate as if they were my
grandparents; the cousins of my sons and daughters, as if they were
my sons and daughters; the grandchildren of my brothers and sisters
and their several cousins, as if they were my own grandchildren. All
the individuals of the same category address each other as if they
were brothers and sisters. Uncleship, auntship, and cousinship being
ignored, we have, as far as the nomenclature is considered, only
grandchildren.[438]
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