the females together with the children are members of one
kinship organisation.

Save in the rare instances of non-exogamous kinship groups, the family
necessarily contains one member, at least, whose kin is not the same as
that of the remainder; this is either the husband or the wife, according
as descent is reckoned in the female or the male line; where polygyny is
practised, this unity may go no further than the phratry or the class,
each wife being of a different totem kin.

Although it frequently happens that the children belong to the kin which
through one of the parents or otherwise exercises the supreme authority
in the family, it is far from being the case that there is invariable
agreement between the principles on which kinship and authority are
determined. Three main types of family may be distinguished: (1)
patripotestal, (2) matripotestal, (_a_) direct, and (_b_) indirect, in
which the authority is wielded by the father, mother, and mother's
relatives, in particular her brothers, respectively. Innumerable
transitional forms are found, some of which will be mentioned in the
next chapter, which deals with the rule of descent by which membership
of natal groups is determined.

Turning now to kinship organisations, we find that the most widely
distributed type is the totem kin, in fact, if we except the Hottentots
and a few other peoples among whom no trace of it is found, it is
difficult to say where totemism has not at one time or another
prevailed. It is found as a living cult to-day among the greater part of
the aborigines of North and South America, in Australia, and among some
of the Bantu populations of the southern half of Africa. In more or less
recognisable forms it is found in other parts of Africa, New Guinea,
India, and other parts of the world. In the ancient world its existence
has been maintained for Rome (clan Valeria etc.), Greece, and Egypt, but
the absence of information as to details of the social structure renders
these theories uncertain.

Aberrant cases apart, totemism is understood to involve (1) the
existence of a body of persons claiming kinship, who (2) stand in a
certain relation to some object, usually an animal, and (3) do not marry
within the kin.

Passing over the classes, which are peculiar to Australia and will be
fully dealt with below, we come to a more comprehensive form of kinship
organisation in the phratries. These are a grouping of the community in
two or more e