THE CLASSIFICATORY SYSTEM

It has been long known that this system of counting relations, which occurs among the Australian tribes, also obtains among other savage and barbarous races. Since it was first brought under notice by the late Dr. Lewis H. Morgan, “the classificatory system” of relationships, as he called it, has been the subject of much controversy, and the opinions formed as to the origin and real meaning of the system have been various. It may be safely said that there are few, even of those who have been brought into daily contact during the course of a lifetime with the Australian blackfellow, who have taken the trouble to master the details of the system; or, if they have done so, they have not been able to form any true conception of the true foundation on which the system rests, or the root from which it has sprung.

How much more difficult, therefore, must the subject be for those who live in countries separated by thousands of miles from lands where they could become personally acquainted with savage life. They are compelled, if they desire to study the subject of relationships, to have recourse to second-hand information, superficially collected by travellers, or by local residents, who have brought to the investigation the ingrained beliefs as to relationships which almost form a part of the mental texture of civilised man.