Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/735

 NOTES AND ABSTRA CTS ^ I 5

fact that history furnishes us data for only comparatively recent periods in human life, scientific ethnology has an important place in sociology,

4. Position of the primitive people. The chief question under this heading is whether, in general, the primitive peoples possess a similar ability to the ancestors of the present civilized peoples; and, if all the conditions were the same, whether the development of the two would have been essentially the same, or whether they are fundamentally different, and so have followed different lines of development. Taking everything into consideration, it seems highly probable that the innate ability of all living primitive peoples is not of equal value for higher development. However, this difference in endowment does not destroy the value of the comparison between primi- tive and culture peoples. Certain lines of development are the same, and a more careful and critical study of the primitive peoples promises much for a science of association.

5. Particular advantages of ethnology. The principal advantage that the study of ethnology affords is that it gives us insight into the less complex associative phe- nomena of people still living. Though the pure primitive type is rapidly vanishing, yet the knowledge of these peoples has increased considerably in recent years. New problems can be presented for study through ethnology, and we are much less dependent upon accidental discoveries of material than in archaeology and early his- tory. Not only can the great problems of social and cultural evolution not be solved without the aid of ethnology, but there are also many other questions that depend upon it. I may mention merely the question of the equality or inequality of the human races, and why certain races have not made much progress.

A beginning has been made in the study of the primitive peoples. The colonies of almost all the largest civilized states and of some of the smaller ones afford excellent opportunities for the continuance of the study. This work should be done while it is possible, for these people are fast disappearing. Ethnology is of incomparable value for sociology in all its relations. It ought no longer to be left to the care of a few dilettants or martyrs, but the universities should open their doors to it and to soci- ology. S. R. STEINMETZ, "Die Bedentung der Ethnologic fur Soziologie," in Vier- teljahrsschrift fur wissenschaftliche Philosophie und Soziologie, XXVI. Jahrgang, IV. Heft.

E. M.

Australian Marriage Systems. The so-called "class system" in Australia presents many various forms, and may occur where descent is reckoned either in the male or female line. But, speaking roughly, the following bars on marriage exist :

1. Each man and woman in a tribe belongs to one of two divisions or " phratries " within the tribe, say Matthuric and Kirarawa. Kirarawa must never marry Kira- rawa, but always Matthuric, and vice versa.

2. Each man and woman also belongs to a given totem. Under Matthuric, say, six totems are ranged ; under Kirarawa six others. Persons of the same totem may never intermarry.

3. Each of the two " primary divisions " is divided into two or more apparently non-totemic classes, the members intermarry as in a cross-figure in a reel, and their children take a name which is that of the class of neither father nor mother, the grand- children returning to the class name of a grandparent.

In explanation of the primary divisions some inquirers say that the names are usually those of animals, and so are totemic ; other writers insist that an original com- mune existed in an undivided condition at first and was then deliberately bisected so that half of its members might never marry with the other half, each half taking an animal name. Why such a deliberate bisection was made has never been explained, nor has an explanation been given of class two, for apparently nothing was gained by this classification, since by the primary division no one might marry within his or her totem-name.

My own provisional theory is as follows :

I do not think that very early man lived in an undivided commune of indefinite but considerable size and that the members intermarried. I think that difficulties of food-supply made a big horde then impossible, and that sexual jealousy, in an age so animal, made promiscuity improbable in a high degree.