in fishing. As a consequence, to the acquisitive goods of the domestic economy were added a new set of commodities; nevertheless there was no material advance in the methods of production. Though the abundance of the food supply rendered possible the congregation of large numbers of families, the nature of the supply called for no great amount of coöperation among producers. In the construction and defense of the fish-weir there was indeed some combination, but this was of the loosest kind. In the main, the family continued to be the unit of production and consumption-the husband attending to the catching of the fish, and the women of the family looking after the other productive activities.1 The family support was further augmented by slave labor, now made possible by the abundance of the food supply, and also by the fact that the fishing implements supplied to the captive slave could not be used as weapons to attack the master. The fact that slave labor was practicable also caused some slight differences in distribution as between different families. Hence occurred a faint manifestation of the phenomenon of prestige value. Some families were richer than others in slaves, and hence in stores of food, blankets, etc. Furthermore, the more slaves a man had, the more wives he could own, since the surplus product of the slaves' labor could be used to support these women. Slaves therefore came to be regarded as a sort of standard of value, in terms of which a man's wealth was sometimes estimated.

The introduction of the village economy wrought little essential change in the constitution of the state. The village was, in the main, only a congregation of many domestic economies. There might be, of course, some temporary military organization for purposes of defense; undoubtedly, too, some general influence was constantly exerted by one or two of the older and richer men, for the purpose of keeping peace and order among the different families; nevertheless, the political and governmental system differed but little from that of domestic economists. Each family or gens in the village continued to form a separate political and governmental unit, in which the father or patriarch was the sovereign power.

1Keasbey, "Inst. of Society," Internat. Mo., I, 383, 386.

So far but one really fundamental type of economy has appeared. This is the "domestic" system, adapted to regions where the nature of the food-supply makes coöperation not advantageous. Even the village economy was a mere aggregation of domestic economies. Yet a distinction must be made between the village and the domestic systems, because in the former the occasional appearance of a new principle is noticeable. The management of the weir in the salmon fishing season and the defense of their collective riparian rights caused at certain seasons the formation of an organization among the men of the different families. This temporary union of the men of the village into a band, each member of which coöperated with all the rest in order to carry out certain definite purposes, was the clan: hence, for the time being, the family as a productive and political unit disappeared, and the clan took its place.

Where the coöperative method of production had through force of environmental circumstances reached a fuller development and become comparatively permanent, the general character of village life was correspondingly altered. The settlement was no longer a mere aggregation of families each economically and politically independent of the others. On the contrary, its chief productive activities were carried on by an association of coöperating individuals, bound together not merely by family affection, but by the ties of economic interest. In order to keep up the population, the family remained in existence, but it had no economic function beyond that of consumption. As a productive association, it had become merged in the clan; and political sovereignty passed from the individual fathers of families to the clan as a whole. The latter now controlled the access to the source of supply, and consequently had absolute power over such of the inhabitants of the village as were without the limits of the clan, and were dependent upon it for support or defense. Government, therefore, was representative only of the clan. In the establishment of this clan principle is to be found the origin of organized society. "The clan," says Professor Keasbey, "is neither a confederacy of domestic units nor an aggregation of individuals, but an organization in the full force of the term-it is a corporation, an economic

body politic, whose constituent members are not so much severally bound, as jointly united in a common cause. The permanent productive clan is, in short, the first form of the state."1

The first stage of development of the clan economy occurred in the Plain environment. In this region, the buffalo supplied all the prime necessaries of existence. The wandering habits of the animal and its gregarious tendencies taken together with the nature of its habitat had a distinct effect upon the economy of the human beings who depended upon it for subsistence. The buffalo hunting tribes were naturally clan economists. After the introduction of the horse had enabled tribes like the Dacotahs and Comanches to push out farther into the Plain, and to depend entirely upon the buffalo as their source of supply, the process of organization seems to have been completed. Production ceased to be carried on by the family group with its mere sexual association of labor. On the contrary, the productive unit was a group outside the family and even antagonistic to it. Withdrawing from their families all the able-bodied men, it united them, under a leader with authority of life and death, in a closely organized coöperative band. Each member of the group had his part to perform in the buffalo hunt, some acted as scouts, others as a sort of police, others as simple marksmen.3 A similarly rigid military organization existed. Just as every able-bodied man was a hunter, so also was he a warrior, likely at any time to be called by force of public opinion to join some war party, and under the leadership of a war chief to coöperate with others in the defense of the hunting grounds or in the preservation of their prestige among their neighbors. To this hunting and warring republican clan, the women of the group formed a sort of subsidiary and unorganized set of assistants. The means of subsistence once procured by the men's clan, the women prepared it for use. They cut up the meat, and prepared the skins for use as clothing and

1"Inst. of Soc.," Internat. Mo., I, p. 395.

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 207-208; IV, 60.

Margry, VI, 444-445.

Perrot, pp. 60-64.

3 Dodge, "The Plains of the Great West," pp. 263–266.

tent coverings.1

Besides doing this work, they gathered roots, and in some cases cultivated a little maize. Their labor, however, was not of the sort that either requires or encourages coöperation: hence they worked individually, without any particular organization among themselves, each producing as the servant of some member of the men's clan; in short, an organized band of men formed the typical production group of the Plains tribes. It controlled the access to the source of supply, and directed the labor of the women. Though the consumption group was still the family, the unit of distribution was the clan. In the latter, each member received a share of the animals killed in the hunt, the actual slayers receiving some special portion as a mark of their prowess.2

The sociological effects of the republican clan economy are evident, in the first place, in the family. Paternal authority was supreme in the lodge. Wife and children belonged absolutely to the husband and father, and all purely family affairs were regulated by him, without reference to any outside organization.3 Men who could procure several wives did so, since they were useful as laborers and child-bearers. Sons were valued as adding to the wealth of the family while they remained unmarried, and as always increasing the influence of the father. Daughters, on the other hand, were regarded merely as articles to be sold to the highest bidder. In all this, conditions did not differ greatly from those prevalent in the domestic and village economies.

Politically, however, there arose a new state of affairs. The state was now identical with the male clan—the latter controlling the sources of the surplus, and so possessing sovereign power in political life. To the women belonged no shadow of sovereignty. Speaking of the Comanches, Schoolcraft says, "Females have no voice or even influence in their councils," ," and are "held in small

1 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 236; II, 132.

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 185.

Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes,” II, 131-132—“ A husband exercises unbounded authority over the person of his wife."

Bancroft, I, 509-" Every father holds undisputed sway over his children."

*Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 131.

1

estimation." Hence, from the women's point of view, the government was an absolute despotism. Within the clan, on the other hand, the purest republicanism prevailed, all good hunters and warriors having an equal share in the management of affairs.' The chieftanship was given to the ablest and most experienced hunter, especially if he had a large number of blood relations to support his claims. He exercised governmental powers, however, only as the representative of the sovereign body of hunters and warriors, and with their advice and consent. All decisions of importance were made by the clan council, the voice of the majority prevailing.

In the Desert-Oasis environment, south of the Colorado River the clan principle manifested itself in a still more developed form. The inhabitants of this region depended for subsistence mainly upon maize culture. In this industry women were the pioneers. Hence in the course of time they formed a productive association of their own which, in certain circumstances, came to compete with the men's hunting and war clan, and gained the first place in the economic life of the community. Eventually, when conditions required, as among the Pueblo Indians, the men also took up agriculture; and the two clans united in one body. This communal clan, composed of both men and women, was the form of organization characteristic of the primitive agricultural settlements of the southwest. The distribution group was now the communal clan, though the family still continued to be the unit of consumption. The family, however, showed the effect of economic antecedents in the reduced authority of the father and the correspondingly increased influence of the mother. The wife rather than the husband was now regarded as the head of the family. The state, too, showed the influence of the changed methods of production. Sovereignty resided in the body of cooperating producers that controlled the sources of the surplus; i. e. in the communal clan. Women became sharers in the possession of sovereign power. Government was carried on by purely

1 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 235. Ibid., V, 687; II, 130.