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��712 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899

Clans are the bodies corporate for all industrial purposes. 1 Much of the hunting is clan hunting without firearms ; the wild

jl animals have to be entrapped or captured by many devices in

L which all the members of the clan take part. These clan hunts

ij> are important occasions, when distant woods, distant valleys, or

[\ distant mountains become the theater of operations. Under

i ; i these circumstances it sometimes happens that the male mem-

r: bers of the clan desire to have their wives with them, but their

wives belong to other clans and have their households with other {■ clans, hence on such hunting excursions the clan organization is

to a greater or less extent interrupted and the women fall under

the control of their husbands instead of their brothers and

I; mothers' brothers. This is but a temporary arrangement ; but

it often occurs where the clans resort to some favorite stream or seaside resort to gather and dry fish. By and by agriculture is developed. The cultivation of the soil seems usually to have been first developed in the arid lands. Everywhere in America where a primitive tribe has engaged in irrigation for agricultural purposes we find a tribal village as a central winter homestead, with a number of outlying villages or rancherias, which are occu- j r pied by the several clans during the season of irrigation. To

l t understand the nature of primitive agricultural industry in

America it becomes necessary to take these facts into consider- ation. In every great ruin group in America situated in the arid lands where agriculture was practiced, and also in such humid lands as were cultivated, a central ruin of the habitations of the tribe is found with outlying ruins or rancherias. When people have thus reached the state of agriculture where irrigation is practiced there is still stronger reason why the clansmen should control their wives and children. Irrigation requires the manage- ment of the stream which is used to fructify the soil, and irriga- tion works must be constructed. The stream must be dammed and the water carried over the land by canals ; this means the construction of works that have a perennial value, and attention

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