litical organization.[92] All the
primitive stocks of the Brazilian Indians, except the mountain Ges, are
fishermen and agriculturists; hence their annual migrations are kept
within narrow limits. Each linguistic group occupies a fixed and
relatively well defined district.[93] Stanley found along the Congo
large permanent villages of the natives, who were engaged in fishing and
tilling the fruitful soil, but knew little about the country ten miles
back from the river. These two generous means of subsistence are
everywhere combined in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia: there they
are associated with dense populations and often with advanced political
organization, as we find it in the feudal monarchy of Tonga and the
savage Fiji Islands.[94] Fisher tribes, therefore, get an early impulse
forward in civilization;[95] and even where conditions do not permit the
upward step to agriculture, these tribes have permanent relations with
their land, form stable social groups, and often utilize their location
on a natural highway to develop systematic trade. For instance, on the
northwest coast of British Columbia and Southern Alaska, the Haida,
Tlingit and Tsimshean Indians have portioned out all the land about
their seaboard villages among the separate families or households as
hunting, fishing, and berrying grounds. These are regarded as private
property and are handed down from generation to generation. If they are
used by anyone other than the owner, the privilege must be paid for.
Every salmon stream has its proprietor, whose summer camp can be seen
set up at the point where the run of the fish is greatest. Combined with
this private property in land there is a brisk trade up and down the
coast, and a tendency toward feudalism in the village communities, owing
to the association of power and social distinction with wealth and
property in land.[96]

[Sidenote: Land bond in pastoral societies.]

Among pastoral nomads, among whom a systematic use of their territory
begins to appear, and therefore a more definite relation between land
and people, we find a more distinct notion than among wandering hunters
of territorial ownership, the right of communal use, and the distinct
obligation of common defense. Hence the social bond is drawn closer. The
nomad identifies himself with a certain district, which belongs to his
tribe by tradition or conquest, and has its clearly defined boundaries.
Here he roams between its summer and win