Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/151

Rh A second explanation depends on their family organization. The Taiyal family is patrilocal, while the Ami on the east coast, the most civilized tribe, have the matrilocal combined with the age-grade systems. The unit of Taiyal society is the village (Kaaran, meaning "neighbours"), and one or more villages form three different social groups. At the outset the village is formed by a group of families related to each other. As time goes on its population is increased by emigrants from outside. In some cases the village houses are built close to each other, especially on the eastern side of the central mountain range; but on the western side the houses are scattered over a comparatively wide area. As stated above, one or more villages form the three following social groups:

The people belonging to the first group must practise the ceremonies at sowing and harvest, and worship the spirits of ancestors in common at a certain period in each year. They must also observe mourning when the death of a member of the group occurs. In many cases the second or hunting group is identical with the first or ceremonial group; but more than two ceremonial groups may form a hunting group, or a number of hunting groups may form a larger ceremonial group. For the third group, I use the term "purification," but in fact it shares the fines levied on those who violate village custom. The Taiyal consider marriage, divorce, illicit intercourse between man and woman, murder, and other acts contrary to the village custom as causes of impurity, and when such offences