Page:Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines.djvu/117

 northern Indians a large cluster participated. In conformity with the organization of society based upon kin, when in the first stage of its development, the kindred group inherited, and the common ancestor of this kin being considered a female, it follows that if a man died, not his children, still less his wife, but his mother's descendants, that is, his brothers, sisters, in fact the entire consanguine relationship from which he derived on his mother's side, were his heirs. Such may have been the case even among the Muysca of New Granada. It was different, however, in Mexico, where we meet with traces of a decided progress. Not only had descent been changed to the male line, but heirship was limited, to the exclusion of the kin and of the agnates themselves, to the children of the male sex. Whatever personal effects a father left, which were not offered up in sacrifice at the ceremonies of his funeral, they were distributed among his male