that he was a blood relative of every other person with that group name. If the group is small, many individuals will be of too near kin to marry and must bring in wives or husbands as the case may be. Since the parents are now of different groups, their child must inherit one or the other group name. There are but two alternatives. When he takes the mother's group name, we use the term clan, when the father's, gens. We do not intend to imply that the clan necessarily came about in this manner, but give the statement this form for the sake of clearness in distinction.
Now, it frequently happens that certain social regulations are defined by the clan or gentile name. In many cases, the universal prohibition against marriage between nearest kin is formalized into a rule that persons with the same clan or gentile names cannot marry. This gives what is spoken of as an exogamous relation. In the New World, at least, this rule does not negate the world-wide prohibition against the marriage of parents and children and other near relatives, but is an additional social regulation. On reflection, it will be apparent that as a clan or gens expands, it will become more and more easy for one to find within it a mate not ineligible by blood. In fact, we have the example of the Pawnee clan organization on the endogamous principle; i.e., one is expected to marry a member of his own clan, but, of course, not a near relative.
This peculiar association of membership in a social group with marriage restrictions has received a great deal of attention from students of society, many of whom have looked upon it as the key, not only to the marriage system, but to society as a whole. Yet, in the light of concrete data for the New World, this seems unwarranted. Also, the tendency has been to consider clans and gentes as fundamentally different, but a close look at them shows that they rest upon the same idea and differ only in the method by which the child is assigned membership.
Turning now to the question of geographical distribution, it appears that so far as known, the clan and gentile area will comprise the whole of the area of intense culture, the greater
