Among the Siouan Indians the devices of taboo, kin-names, and ordination
are found in such relation as to throw some light on the growth of
primitive institutions. While they blend and are measurably involved with
thaumaturgic devices, there are indications that in a general way the
three devices stand for stages in the development of law. Among the
best-known tribes the taboo pertained to the clan, and was used (in a much
more limited way than among some other peoples) to commemorate and
perpetuate the clan organization; kin-names, which were partly natural and
thus normal to the clan organization, and at the same time partly
artificial and thus characteristic of gentile organization, served to
commemorate and perpetuate not only the family relations but the relations
of the constituent elements of the tribe; while the ordination, expressed
in the camping circle, in the phratries, in the ceremonials, and in many
other ways, served to commemorate intertribal as well as intergentile
relations, and thus to promote peace and harmonious action. It is
significant that the taboo was less potent among the Siouan Indians than
among some other stocks, and that among some tribes it has not been found;
and it is especially significant that in some instances the taboo was
apparently inversely related to kin-naming and ordination, as among the
Biloxi, where the taboo is exceptionally weak and kin-naming exceptionally
strong, and among the Dakota, where the system of ordination attained
perhaps its highest American development in domiciliary arrangement, while
the taboo was limited in function; for the relations indicate that the
taboo was archaic or even vestigial.
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