iant civilization--if we may apply such term
to the barbaric conditions which for the most part existed when the race
was introduced to the knowledge of Europeans. For this reason,
generalization regarding the race is dangerous and usually leads to
inaccuracy. Because, for example, a Modoc might kill his mother-in-law
without incurring any penalty for the deed, we must not assume that such
a custom was prevalent among all the tribes of the American Indians.
Because among the Tehamas the newborn child was thrown into a stream by
its mother immediately after its birth, when if it rose to the surface
and cried it was rescued, while if it sank to rise no more its body was
left to be carried away by the current, we must not therefore conclude
that such a proceeding was common among the rest of the tribes of the
Pacific slope. Each nation, and frequently each tribe, in the more
limited sense of the word, had its own customs, its own superstitions,
its own creed, its own conditions of existence. Yet there were certain
manifestations of these circumstances which could be found among all the
nations of the primeval American continent, and it is these things, as
they relate to the women of the Amerinds, that it is the purpose of this
chapter to discuss, as well as to cast a rapid glance over the general
history and progress of the aboriginal woman of the continent of North
America.

In order that the reader shall understand the normal position of woman
among the Amerinds in their undisturbed civilization, it is necessary to
refer to the usual constitution and conditions of the American tribes in
general. In the light of modern research, there can be little
doubt--though the fact was for long neglected--that the original
American society, as met with by the first explorers of the country, was
founded upon the gens, the totem or clan, as the social unit rather than
upon the family, as was long supposed. Mr. Powell defines the American
gens as "an organized body of consanguineal kindred"; and while this
constituence was often modified by the introduction, by adoption, of
strangers into the gens, in such cases the tribal conscience was
satisfied with the fiction that such adoption left undisturbed the
relation of the gens as consanguineous. An indeterminate number of these
gentes, whose members dwelt together and were under common obligation to
assist one another, composed the tribe. There were also "phratries," or
religious brotherh