All of the best-known tribes had reached that plane in
organization characterized by descent in the male line, though many
vestiges and some relatively unimportant examples of descent in the female
line have been discovered. Thus the clan system was obsolescent and the
gentile system fairly developed; i. e., the people were practically out of
the stage of savagery and well advanced in the stage of barbarism.
Confederation for defense and offense was fairly defined and was
strengthened by intermarriage between tribes and gentes and the
prohibition of marriage within the gens; yet the organization was such as
to maintain tribal autonomy in considerable degree; i.e., the social
structure was such as to facilitate union in time of war and division into
small groups adapted to hunting in times of peace. No indication of
feudalism has been found in the stock.
The government was autocratic, largely by military leaders sometimes
(particularly in peace) advised by the elders and priests; the leadership
was determined primarily by ability--prowess in war and the chase and
wisdom in the council,--and was thus hereditary only a little further than
characteristics were inherited; indeed, excepting slight recognition of
the divinity that doth hedge about a king, the leaders were practically
self-chosen, arising gradually to the level determined by their abilities.
The germ of theocracy was fairly developed, and apparently burgeoned
vigorously during each period of peace, only to be checked and withered
during the ensuing war when the shamans and their craft were forced into
the background.
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