ote 2 on previous page. [Transcriber's Note: Refers to [146]]

[148] We find that in practice change of age grade, i.e. of relationship
term, does exist; a clearer proof could not be given that the term of
relationship has nothing to do with descent.

[149] _Wiener Med. Wochenschrift_, 1904; cf. _Fort. Rev._ LXXXIII, 460,
n. 18. There is, as Mr Lang informs me, a curious Panama case in records
of the Darien expedition, 1699.

[150] Sometimes but usually not, for Morgan is utterly inconsistent.

CHAPTER XII.

GROUP MARRIAGE AND THE TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP.

Mother and Child. Kurnai terms. Dieri evidence. _Noa._ Group Mothers.
Classification and descriptive terms. Poverty of language. Terms
express status. The savage view natural.

We may now turn to consider the terms of relationship from the point of
view of marriage, more especially in connection with Australia. We have
already seen that there are great difficulties in the way of Morgan's
hypothesis that the names accurately represent the relations which
formerly existed in the tribes which used them. I propose to discuss the
matter here from a somewhat different standpoint.

It seems highly probable that if any individual term came into use,
whether monogamy, patriarchal polygyny, "group marriage," or promiscuity
prevailed, it would be that which expresses the relationship of a mother
to her child. The only other possibility would be that in the first two
conditions mentioned the relation of husband to wife might take
precedence.

In actual practice we find that the name which a mother applies to her
own child is applied by her equally to the children of the women whom
her husband might have married. This state of things may obviously arise
from one of three causes, (_a_) In the first place the name may have
been originally that which a mother applied to her own son, and it may
have been extended to those who were her nephews in a state of monogamy,
or stepsons (=sons of other women by the same father) in a state of
polygyny either with or without polyandry. (_b_) The theory that a name
was applied originally to own and collateral relatives has already been
discussed, so far as it refers to the "undivided commune." The case of
regulated promiscuity is different and must be considered here. (_c_) On
the other hand the name which she uses may have been expressive of
tribal status or group status, and may have had nothing to do with
descent.