Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/48

 36 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920

any possible connection of these political structures with migrations, the following results would appear: in America, the tribes of the Iroquois are known to have resided in their approximate locations at the formation of the League long before that event occurred; also, a series of migrations in that continent, some of vast extent (as noted before) did not result in the germination of political structures on a larger scale. In Africa, while the southeastern area of migration, mentioned above, coincides with the presence of state systems such as that of the Zulu Kaffirs, no conspicuous migrations have been recorded in the other much larger sections of the aborigi- nal continent, where similar states are equally common, In Poly- nesia, finally, there is correspondence between integrated political structures and an area of vast migrations, but next door to that area, in the Papuan-Melanesian district, not inconsiderable migra- tions have not led to a similar political result.

In the light of the above considerations, one will, I trust, hesi- tate in ascribing determining value to migrations, as such, in relation to political organization, as such, even should Professor Teggart succeed in showing that there exists a fairly constant nexus between a certain type of migrations and the emergence of modern or more strictly historical states.

Before proceeding, there is another point made by the author with reference to the relation of kindred to political organization, which must be met here. The statement runs as follows :

To comprehend the situation fully, we may begin by saying that kindred organiza- tion, in whatever form it may assume, reflects the natural facts of human genera- tion. What follows immediately from this is a commonplace of the study of primitive man which must be constantly borne in mind, for kindred organization implies the unquestioned and unremitting dominance of the group over the individual, and this leads to the tenacious and uncompromising maintenance of customary ways and ideas. It will thus be seen that the despoti&m of custom negatives the idea that kindred organization could have been given up voluntarily, or exchanged, after deliberation, for something invented or considered better. The change, as I have pointed out, has been forced upon men at certain geographi- cal points, determined by the physical distribution of land and water, and by a series of exigencies which go back to specific changes in climate within a definite area of the earth's surface. Furthermore, the immediate occasion of the break- up of kindred groups has been the collision and conflict, at the termini of routes, which have ensued from the migrations of men. . . . (pp. 84-5).

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