The social organization of the Tlingit is founded on matriarchy and is dependent upon two exogamic parties, the members of which intermarry and supplement each other upon the many ceremonial occasions that mark their intercourse. The one claiming the Raven crest is known particularly among the northern Tlingit as Klar-de-nar, "one party," the other, more generally represented by the Wolf emblem has several names, local in character, referring to old living places, as Shen-ku-ka-de, "belonging to Shenk," Sit-ka-de, "belonging to Sit," said to refer to the separation of the people after the flood when this branch settled at Sit, Gee-ya-de, etc. Outside of these there is one family claiming the Eagle crest that has no phratral standing, the members of which, as strangers, marry indiscriminately in either division, but in all cases the children belong to the mother's clan. The two parties are subdivided into fifty-six existing consanguineal families or clans, and the names of some other's now extinct are remembered. Each of these, while retaining its phratral functions and privileges, is absolutely independent in government, succession, inheritance, and territory, and besides the phratral crest common to all, assumes others that are fully as prominent and often more in evidence. Within the family there is a well-defined aristocracy wholly dependent upon birth, from which the chiefs are chosen, an intermediate class consisting of those who have forced themselves to the front, through wealth, character, or artistic ability, and the poorer people. In earlier days there were many slaves who had no recognized rights. Geographically considered, there are sixteen tribal divisions known as kwans, a contraction of ka (man) and an (land-lived on or claimed). These are purely accidental aggregations, with little cohesion, a grouping of one or more families of each phratry through migratory meeting or continual intermarriage, that live together in fixed villages for mutual protection and social advantages, but recognize no tribal head or authority, each family being a unit in itself. Very often the bitterest feuds existed between families within the tribe and of the same phratry, although if attacked by a stranger people all would unite for mutual protection.