Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/767

 696 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899

The nation, like the tribe, is a compound group of people, the distinction between them being in the method by which the grouping is accomplished. All the people of the United States belong to the national group. They are citizens of the nation, and, at the same time, are divided into forty-five groups as citizens of states. In every state there are counties ; and the people of the state are citizens of one or other of these counties. [1 Then, again, the counties are divided into precincts, towns, or

townships. Sometimes towns are divided into school-districts, and cities into wards. And there are numerous villages. Thus the people of the United States are organized in a hierarchy of groups, from the school-district to the entire nation. The terri- tory of the United States is divided into subordinate districts throughout the hierarchy ; and there are at least four groups in the hierarchy, viz., the town, the county, the state, and the nation, — or the ward, the city, the state, and the nation. Every citizen of the United States, therefore, belongs to four different organizations in a hierarchy. He has a vote in each organiza- tion, assists in the selection of its officers, obeys its laws, and holds allegiance to its authority. This is all very simple ; but the plan of grouping or regimenting people by territorial boundaries is of late origin. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were grouped by a very different method. History teaches that the ancient Greeks and Romans were grouped by a different plan. In fact, it has been discovered that, in the two stages of culture which I have called savagery and barbarism, a very different plan of regimentation everywhere prevails. This plan is known as tribal organization.

Tribal organization characterizes the two lower stages of culture ; though savage regimentation differs from barbaric regi- mentation in some very important particulars.

In tribal society people are grouped or regimented in bodies of kindred. Let us first examine this grouping in the savage tribe. A savage tribe is composed of clans. Let us obtain a clear idea of what is meant by a clan.

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