In the tribal council the sachems and military chiefs of each phratry sit together, one group against another, each orator speaking to the representatives of each phratry as a distinct corporation.
If a murder happened in a tribe, and the murderer and the murdered did not belong to the same phratry, then the affected clan often appealed to their fraternal clans; they then convened a council of the phratry and appealed to the other phratry as a whole, so that she, in turn, would gather her council to settle the matter.
In the event of the death of prominent persons, the opposite phratry took care of the funeral and funeral celebrations, while the members of the phratry of the deceased participated in the funeral as relatives of the deceased. When a sachem died, the opposite phratry notified the allied council of the Iroquois of the vacancy.
Coordination of candidates for sachems elected by fraternal clans.
The organization of religious mysteries by the religious brotherhood, which is part of the phratry
The phratry went into battle as a special detachment in its own uniform and with its own banner, under the command of its own
leader.
Compiled by: Engels F. Origin of the family, private property and states // Marx K., Engels F. Soch. 2nd ed. T. 21. S.
The union of several clans of one tribe constituted a phratry (from the Greek phratria - brotherhood). Phratries arose either by splitting one clan into several daughter clans, or by combining several independent clans. Accordingly, tribes or more amorphous ethno-cultural formations were divided into two (the most typical form of dual organization) or several phratries. Often phratries were characterized by exogamy, unilinearity, their own name, certain spiritual and ritual functions. In many cases, their members traced their lineage back to a common (most often mythical or legendary) ancestor.
More on the topic FUNCTIONS OF THE PHRATRY (among the Iroquois):
- functions of journalism. The concept of function The variety of social and information needs of society is the objective basis of the functions of journalism.
- Region definition. Function level lines. The direction of the greatest increase (decrease) of the function at a point. Gradient.
- Partial derivatives of the first order of a function of several variables. Condition of differentiability of a function at a point.
- 5.1.4. Reduction of trigonometric functions to functions of an acute angle
- Distribution function of a random variable (integral function)
- ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE COMPOSITION OF A CRIME (procedural function)
- Psychogenetics of higher mental functions. Studies of the heritability of cognitive functions. Key signs of intelligence.
The Latin word gens, which Morgan uses everywhere to denote this generic union, comes, like the Greek equivalent genos, from the common Aryan root gan (in German kan, since here, as a general rule, instead of the Aryan g, there should be k), meaning " beget". Gens, genos, Sanskrit dschanas, Gothic (according to the above rule) kuni, Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon kyn, English kin, Middle High German künne all mean the same gender, origin. However, Latin gens and Greek genos are used specifically to designate a clan union that prides itself on a common origin (in this case from one common ancestor) and forms, by virtue of the well-known social and religious institutions that connect it, a special community, the origin and nature of which remained, nevertheless , still obscure to all our historians.
We have already seen above, when considering the punaluan family, what is the composition of the genus in its original form. It consists of all persons who, by means of a punaluan marriage and in accordance with the ideas inevitably prevailing in this marriage, form the recognized offspring of one particular ancestor, the founder of the genus. Since in this form of family the father cannot be established with certainty, only the female line is recognized. Since brothers cannot marry their sisters, but only women of a different origin, then, by virtue of maternal law, the children born from them by these strange women are outside this genus. Thus, only offspring remains inside the tribal union. daughters every generation; offspring of sons pass into the birth of their mothers. What then becomes this consanguineous group after it is constituted as a special group in relation to other similar groups within the tribe?
As a classic form of this original genus, Morgan takes the genus from the Iroquois, in particular from the Seneca tribe. In this tribe there are eight genera bearing the names of animals: 1) Wolf, 2) Bear, 3) Turtle, 4) Beaver, 5) Deer, 6) Sandpiper, 7) Heron,
8) Falcon. In each clan, the following customs prevail:
1. The clan chooses its sachem (elder for peacetime) and chief (military leader). The sachem was to be chosen from among the members of the gens itself, and his office was hereditary within the gens, since it had to be replaced immediately upon release; the military leader could be chosen not from the members of the clan, and at times he might not exist at all. The son of the previous sachem was never elected as sachem, since motherhood prevailed among the Iroquois, and the son, therefore, belonged to another line, but often the brother of the previous sachem or the son of his sister was elected. Everyone participated in the elections - men and women. But the election was subject to approval by the other seven clans, and only after that the chosen one was solemnly introduced into office and, moreover, general advice of the entire Iroquois union. The significance of this act will be seen from what follows. The power of the sachem within the gens was paternal, of a purely moral order; he had no means of coercion. At the same time, he was ex officio a member of the council of the Seneca tribe, as well as the general council of the Iroquois union. The military leader could order something only during military campaigns.
2. The gens deposes the sachem and war chief at its discretion. Again, this is decided jointly by men and women. Displaced officials then become, like others, simple warriors, private individuals. However, the tribal council can also remove sachems, even against the will of the clan.
3. None of the members of the clan can marry within the clan. This is the basic rule of the genus, the bond that holds it together; it is the negative expression of that very definite blood relationship, by virtue of which the individuals united by it only become a genus. By opening this simple fact Morgan first revealed the essence of the genus. How little this essence has been understood up to now, is shown by previous reports about savages and barbarians, where various associations that form the constituent elements of the tribal system, without
understanding and indiscriminately are mixed into one heap under the names: tribe, clan, tum, etc., and it is often said about them that marriage is prohibited within such an association. This created a hopeless confusion, among which Mr. McLennan was able to act as Napoleon to establish order with a peremptory sentence: all tribes are divided into those within which marriage is prohibited (exogamous), and those in which it is allowed (endogamous) . Having completely confused the question in this way, he then embarked on the most profound investigations, which of his two absurd categories is more ancient - exogamy or endogamy. With the discovery of the genus, based on consanguinity, and the consequent impossibility of marriage between its members, this nonsense dissipated by itself. - Of course, at the stage of development at which we find the Iroquois, the prohibition of marriage within the clan is inviolably observed.
4. The property of the dead passed to the rest of the members of the clan, it had to remain within the clan. In view of the insignificance of the objects that the Iroquois could leave behind, his inheritance was divided among his closest relatives; in the event of a man's death, his siblings and mother's brother; in the event of a woman's death, her children and sisters, but not her brothers. For the same reason, husband and wife could not inherit each other, nor could children inherit from their father.
5. Members of the clan were obliged to provide each other with assistance, protection, and especially assistance in revenge for the damage caused by strangers. In protecting his safety, the individual relied on the protection of the clan and could count on it; whoever harmed him harmed the whole family. Hence, from the blood ties of the clan, arose the obligation of blood vengeance, which was unconditionally recognized by the Iroquois. If a member of the clan was killed by someone from a foreign clan, the entire clan of the murdered was obliged to respond with blood feud. At first an attempt was made to reconciliation; the council of the murderer's family met and made a proposal to the council of the murdered's family to end the matter peacefully, most often expressing regret and offering significant gifts. If the offer was accepted, then the case
was considered settled. Otherwise, the injured family appointed one of several avengers who were obliged to hunt down and kill the killer. If this was done, the family of the murdered had no right to complain, the case was considered over.
6. A gens has certain names or groups of names which it alone can use in the entire tribe, so that the name of an individual also indicates to which gens he belongs. Family rights are inextricably linked with the family name.
7. The clan may adopt strangers and in this way accept them as members of the entire tribe. The prisoners of war, who were not killed, thus became, by virtue of adoption in one of the clans, members of the Seneca tribe and thereby acquired all the rights of the clan and tribe. Adoption took place at the suggestion of individual members of the clan: at the suggestion of men who accepted an outsider as a brother or sister, or at the suggestion of women who accepted him as their child; for the approval of such an adoption, a solemn adoption into the clan was necessary. Often individual clans, numerically weakened due to exceptional circumstances, were thus again quantitatively strengthened by mass adoption of members of another clan, with the consent of the latter. Among the Iroquois, solemn acceptance into the clan took place at a public meeting of the tribal council, which actually turned this celebration into a religious ceremony.
8. It is difficult to establish the presence of special religious festivities among the Indian clans; but the religious ceremonies of the Indians are more or less connected with the genus. During the six annual religious festivals of the Iroquois, sachems and military leaders of individual clans, by virtue of their position, were ranked among the "guardians of the faith" and performed priestly functions.
9. Rod has common place burials. Among the Iroquois of the state of New York, pressed on all sides by whites, it has now disappeared, but it used to exist. Other Indians still retain it, such as those closely related to the Iroquois, the Tuscarora, who, despite the fact that they are Christians, have
in the cemetery there is a special row for each clan, so that the mother is buried in the same row with the children, but not the father. Yes, and among the Iroquois, the entire family of the deceased participates in the burial, takes care of the grave, funeral speeches, etc.
10. The clan has a council - a democratic assembly of all adult members of the clan, men and women, with equal voting rights. This council elected and removed the sachems and military leaders, as well as the rest of the "guardians of the faith"; he issued rulings on ransom (vergeld) or blood feud for the murdered members of the clan; he accepted strangers into the family. In a word, he was the supreme authority in the clan.
Such are the functions of a typical Indian family.
"All its members are free people obligated to protect each other's freedom; they have equal personal rights—neither sachems nor military leaders claim any privileges; they form a brotherhood bound by blood ties. Liberty, equality, fraternity, although it was never formulated, were the basic principles of the genus, and the genus, in turn, was the unit of the whole public system, the basis of organized Indian society. This explains that inexorable sense of independence and personal dignity, which everyone recognizes for the Indians.
By the time of the discovery of America, the Indians of all North America were organized into clans on the basis of maternal law. Only a few tribes, like the Dakota, for example, had childbirth in decline, and in some others, like the Ojibwe, Omaha, they were organized on the basis of paternal right.
Among very many Indian tribes, numbering more than five or six genera, we meet special groups that unite three, four or more genera; Morgan calls such a group a phratry (brotherhood), giving the Indian name exactly corresponding to it. Greek concepts. So, the Seneca tribe has two phratries; the first includes genera 1–4, the second — genera 5–8. A more detailed study shows that these phratries for the most part represent the original clans into which the tribe first broke up; for with the prohibition of intermarriages within a gens, each tribe had to necessarily embrace at least two gentes in order to be able to exist independently.
As the tribe grew, each clan, in turn, broke up into two or more gentes, which now act as independent ones, while the original gens, embracing all the daughter genera, continues to exist as a phratry. Among the Seneca, and among most other Indians, the gentes of one phratry are considered fraternal gentes, and the gentes of the other phratry are cousins to them, designations which, as we have seen, have a very real and clearly expressed meaning in the American system of kinship. Initially, no Seneca could also marry within their own phratry, but this custom has long since fallen into disuse and is valid only within the gens. According to the Seneca tribe, the original clans from which others descended were the Bear and Deer clans. After this new organization took root, it began to change according to need; if the clans of one phratry died out, then often, in order to equalize with others, whole clans from other phratries were transferred to it. That is why we find genera with the same names among different tribes, grouped differently in phratries.
The functions of the phratry among the Iroquois are partly social, partly religious. 1) In the game of ball, the phratries oppose one another; each nominates its best players, the rest follow the game, arranged in phratries, and bet with each other, betting on the victory of their players. — 2) In the council of the tribe, the sachems and military chiefs of each phratry sit together, one group against another, each speaker speaking to the representatives of each phratry as a separate corporation. - 3) If a murder happened in a tribe, and the murderer and the murdered did not belong to the same phratry, then the affected clan often appealed to their fraternal clans; they then convened a council of the phratry and appealed to the other phratry as a whole, so that she, in turn, would gather her council to settle the matter. Here the phratry thus appears again as the original gens - and with greater chances of success than the weaker individual
genus descended from it. - 4) In the event of the death of prominent persons, the opposite phratry took care of the funeral and funeral celebrations, while the members of the phratry of the deceased participated in the funeral as relatives of the deceased. When a sachem died, the opposite phratry notified the allied council of the Iroquois of the vacancy. — 5) At the election of the sachem, the council of the phratry also came on the scene. The affirmation of the choice by the fraternal clans was taken for granted, as it were, but the clans of the other phratry could present objections. In such a case, the council of this phratry met; if he considered the objections to be correct, the election was invalidated. - 6) Previously, the Iroquois had special religious mysteries, called medicine-lodges by the whites. These mysteries among the Seneca tribe were arranged by two religious brotherhoods that had special rules initiations of new members; each of the two phratries accounted for one such brotherhood. - 7) If, which is almost certain, the four lineages (tribes) that inhabited the four quarters of Tlaxcala at the time of the conquest were four phratries, then this proves that both the phratries among the Greeks and similar tribal unions among the Germans also had the significance of military units; these four lineages went into battle, each as a separate detachment in its own form and with its own banner, under the command of its own leader.
Just as several gentes form a phratry, so several phratries, if we take classic shape, form a tribe; in some cases, significantly weakened tribes lack a middle link - a phratry. What characterizes a particular Indian tribe in America?
1. Own territory and given name. Each tribe owned, in addition to the place of its actual settlement, another significant area for hunting and fishing. Outside this region lay a vast no man's land, extending as far as the possessions of the nearest tribe; with tribes from related languages this band was already;
among tribes that are not related to each other in language, it is wider. This strip is the same as the border forest of the Germans, the uninhabited region that the Suebi Caesar created around their territory; it is the same as îsarnholt (Danish jarnved, limes Danicus) between Danes and Germans, the Saxon forest and branibor (Slavic for “protective forest”), from which Brandenburg takes its name, between Germans and Slavs. The area, separated by such indefinite boundaries, constituted the common land of the tribe, was recognized as such by neighboring tribes, and the tribe itself protected it from encroachments. In practice, the indeterminacy of borders was for the most part inconvenient only when the population grew strongly. - The names of the tribes, apparently, for the most part, rather arose by chance than were chosen consciously, over time it often happened that a tribe received from neighboring tribes a name different from that by which it called itself, just as the Germans had their first historical common the name "Germans" was given by the Celts.
2. Special, only peculiar to this tribe dialect. In reality, tribe and dialect are essentially the same; The new formation of tribes and dialects by division took place in America not long ago, and even now it has hardly ceased altogether. Where two numerically weakened tribes merge into one, it happens that, as an exception, two very related dialects are spoken in the same tribe. The average American tribal population is below 2,000; however, the Cherokee tribe has 26,000 people - the largest number of Indians in the United States who speak a single dialect.
3. The right to solemnly inaugurate sachems and military leaders elected by the clans.
4. The right to depose them, even against the wishes of their kind. Since these sachems and war-chiefs are members of the tribal council, these rights of the tribe in relation to them are self-explanatory. Where an alliance of tribes has been formed and all the tribes included in it are represented in the union council, these rights pass to the latter.
5. General religious ideas (mythology) and religious rites.
"The Indians were, in their barbaric manner, a religious people".
The mythology of the Indians has not yet been subjected to critical study; the objects of their religious ideas - all kinds of spirits - they already gave a human appearance, but the lowest stage of barbarism, on which they were, still does not know visual images, the so-called idols. It was a cult of nature and the elements, which was on the way of development to polytheism. Various tribes had their regular festivals with certain forms of worship, namely dances and games; dancing in particular was an essential part of all religious celebrations; each tribe held their festivals separately.
6. Council of the tribe to discuss common affairs. It consisted of all the sachems and military leaders of the individual families, their true representatives, because they could be removed at any time; he sat in public, surrounded by other members of the tribe, who had the right to enter into discussion and express their opinion; the council made the decision. As a rule, everyone present could, if desired, speak, women could also present their views through their chosen speaker. Among the Iroquois, unanimity was required for a final decision, as was the case in the German communities of the Marches when resolving certain issues. The jurisdiction of the tribal council included, in particular, the regulation of relations with other tribes; he received and sent embassies, declared war and made peace. If it came to war, then it was mostly volunteers who led it. In principle, each tribe was considered to be at war with every other tribe with which it had not concluded a peace treaty in full form. Military actions against such enemies were organized for the most part by individual outstanding warriors; they arranged a military dance, and anyone who took part in it declared thereby their accession to the campaign. Detachment immediately
organized and performed. The protection of the territory belonging to the tribe from attack was also carried out for the most part by calling for volunteers. The marching and returning of such detachments from the campaign has always served as an occasion for public celebrations. The consent of the tribal council for such campaigns was not required, it was not asked for and was not given. This is exactly the same as the private military campaigns of the German squads, as Tacitus draws them for us, only among the Germans the squads have already acquired a more permanent character, they form a stable core, which is already organized in peacetime and around which, in case of war, the rest of the volunteers are grouped. Such military detachments were rarely numerous; the largest military expeditions of the Indians, even over long distances, were carried out by insignificant fighting forces. If several such detachments united for some great undertaking, each of them obeyed only his own leader; the coherence of the campaign plan was to some extent ensured by the advice of these leaders. Such was the mode of warfare among the Alemanni on the Upper Rhine in the fourth century, according to the description of Ammianus Marcellinus.
7. In some tribes we meet paramount chief, whose powers, however, are very small. This is one of the sachems, which, in cases requiring immediate action, must take provisional measures before the council can meet and make a final decision. Here before us is a barely outlined, but for the most part not received further development a prototype of an official with executive power; such an official rather appeared, as we shall see, in most cases, if not everywhere, as a result of the development of the power of the supreme military leader.
The overwhelming majority of American Indians did not go further than uniting into a tribe. Their few tribes, separated from each other by vast border strips, weakened by eternal wars, occupied a huge space by a small number of people. Alliances between kindred tribes were concluded here and there in the case
temporary necessity and with its disappearance disintegrated. However, in some localities, initially kindred, but subsequently separated tribes again rallied into permanent alliances, thus taking the first step towards the formation of nations. In the United States, the most developed form of such an alliance is found among the Iroquois. Emerging from their places of settlement west of the Mississippi, where they probably formed a branch of a large kindred group of Dakota, after long wanderings they settled in the present state of New York, dividing into five tribes: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk. They subsisted on fishing, hunting, and primitive gardening; lived in villages, mostly protected by palisades. Their number never exceeded 20,000; in all five tribes there were several common clans; they spoke very related dialects of the same language and inhabited a continuous territory, which was divided among five tribes. Since this territory was recently conquered by them, the joint actions of these tribes against the tribes ousted by them became a natural phenomenon that became a custom. And thus, at the latest at the beginning of the 15th century, a formalized “eternal alliance” was formed - a confederation, which, realizing the strength it had acquired, immediately acquired an offensive character and, at the time of its highest power, around 1675, conquered large areas surrounding it, partly driving away , partly overlaying tribute local residents. The Iroquois Union represents the most advanced public organization which only Indians have created who have not crossed the lowest stage of barbarism (hence, excluding Mexicans, New Mexicans and Peruvians). The main features of the union were as follows:
1. The eternal union of five tribes related by blood on the basis of complete equality and independence in all internal affairs tribe. This blood relationship was the true basis of the union. Of the five tribes, three were called paternal and were brothers among themselves; the other two were called filial and were also fraternal tribes among themselves. Three
clans - the oldest - were still represented by living members in all five tribes, three other clans - in three tribes; members of each of these clans were all considered brothers in all five tribes. Mutual language, which differed only in dialects, was an expression and proof of a common origin.
2. The organ of the union was the allied council, which consisted of 50 sachems, equal in position and authority; this council made final decisions on all matters of the union.
3. The seats for these 50 sachems, as holders of new offices specially established for the purposes of the union, were distributed among the tribes and clans at its creation. When a position was vacated, the corresponding clan again replaced it through elections; he could also depose his sachem at any time; but the right of induction belonged to the Union Council.
4. These allied sachems were also sachems in their respective tribes and had the right to participate and vote in the tribal council.
5. All resolutions of the Union Council were to be adopted unanimously.
7. The Allied Council could be convened by each of the councils of the five tribes, but could not meet on its own initiative.
8. The meetings took place in the presence of the assembled people; every Mohawk could take the floor; the council alone made the decision.
9. There was no single head in the union, no person who headed the executive branch.
10. On the other hand, the union had two higher military leaders with equal powers and equal power (two "kings" of the Spartans, two consuls in Rome).
That was the one social order, under which the Iroquois lived for over four hundred years and still live. I have described this system in detail, following
Morgan, since here we have the opportunity to study the organization of a society that does not yet know states. The state presupposes a special public authority, separated from the totality of the persons permanently included in its composition. Therefore, Maurer, who, guided by the right instinct, recognizes the German Mark system as a purely social institution, essentially different from the state, although for the most part later serving as the basis for the latter, in all his works explores the gradual emergence of public power from the original Mark, rural, household and urban building and along with it. For example, north American Indians we see how the originally united tribe gradually spreads over the vast mainland; how tribes, dismembered, turn into peoples, into whole groups of tribes, how languages change, becoming not only mutually incomprehensible, but also losing almost every trace of the original unity; how, along with this, within the tribes, individual clans are divided into several genera, and the old maternal clans are preserved in the form of phratries, and, however, the names of these oldest clans still remain the same for territorially distant and long-separated tribes - “Wolf” and “ Bear" are also generic names for most of all Indian tribes. And all of them are inherent in the above-described system, in general, except for the fact that many of them did not reach the union of kindred tribes.
But we also see that since the basic social unit is the clan, from it with an almost irresistible necessity - for this is quite natural - the whole system of clans, phratries and tribes develops. All three groups represent different degrees of consanguinity, and each of them is closed in itself and manages its own affairs, but also serves as a complement to the other. The range of affairs subject to their conduct covers the entire set of public affairs of a person standing on the lowest rung of barbarism. Therefore, when we meet a genus in some people as the main social unit, we will have to look for a tribal organization in it.
similar to the one described here; and where there are sufficient sources, as with the Greeks and Romans, we will not only find it, but we will make sure that even in cases where there are not enough sources, a comparison with the American social order will help us to resolve the most difficult doubts and riddles.
And what a wonderful organization this tribal system is in all its naivety and simplicity! Without soldiers, gendarmes and policemen, without nobles, kings, governors, prefects or judges, without prisons, without trials - everything goes on as usual. All disputes and strife are resolved jointly by those whom they concern - a clan or a tribe, or separate clans among themselves; only as the most extreme, rarely used remedy threatens blood feud, and our death penalty is only its civilized form, which has both positive and negative sides civilization. Although there are much more common cases than at present, - household carried out by a number of families together and on communist principles, the land is the property of the entire tribe, only small vegetable gardens are provided for temporary use by individual farms—nevertheless, there is not a trace of our swollen and complex administrative apparatus. All questions are solved by themselves interested persons, and in most cases age-old custom has already settled everything. There can be no poor and needy - the communist economy and the family know their duties towards the elderly, sick and mutilated in the war. Everyone is equal and free, including women. Slaves do not yet exist, as a rule, there is also no enslavement of foreign tribes. When the Iroquois defeated the Erie and the "neutral nation" about 1651, they invited them to join their alliance as full members; only after the vanquished rejected this were they expelled from their territory. And what kind of men and women such a society produces, show the enthusiastic reviews of all the whites who came into contact with the uncorrupted Indians about the self-esteem, straightforwardness, strength of character and courage of these barbarians.
We have seen examples of this courage quite recently in Africa. The Kaffir Zulus a few years ago, like the Nubians a few months ago - tribes in which tribal institutions have not yet disappeared - did what no European army is capable of. Armed only with spears and javelins, having no firearms, they, under a hail of bullets from the English infantry loaded from the breech of guns - admittedly the first in the world in combat operations in close formation - moved forward to the bayonet distance, more than once upset the ranks of this infantry and even overturned it, despite the extreme inequality in armament , despite the fact that they do not serve any military service and have no idea about military service. The fact that they are able to endure and perform is evidenced by the lamentations of the British about the fact that the kaffir per day passes more than the horse, and faster than it. He has the smallest muscle, strong as steel, stands out like a braided belt, says one English artist.
This is what the people looked like human society before the division into different classes took place. And if we compare their position with that of the vast majority of modern civilized people, then the difference between the current proletarian or small peasant and the ancient free member of the clan will be enormous.
This is one side of the matter. But let us not forget that this organization was doomed to perish. She did not go further than the tribe; the formation of a union of tribes already means the beginning of its destruction, as we will see later and as we have already seen in the examples of the attempts of the Iroquois to enslave other tribes. Everything that was outside the tribe was outside the law. In the absence of a peace treaty concluded in all forms, war between tribes reigned, and this war was waged with that cruelty that distinguishes man from other animals and which was only later somewhat softened under the influence of material interests. The tribal system, which was in full bloom, as we observed it in America, assumed an extremely undeveloped production, therefore, extremely
a rare population over a vast area, hence the almost complete subordination of man to the hostilely opposing and incomprehensible surrounding nature, which is reflected in childishly naive religious beliefs. The tribe remained a boundary for a person both in relation to a foreigner and in relation to himself: the tribe, clan and their institutions were sacred and inviolable, they were that supreme power given by nature, which separate person remained unconditionally subordinate in her feelings, thoughts and actions. No matter how impressive the people of this era look in our eyes, they are indistinguishable from each other, they have not yet come off, in the words of Marx, from the umbilical cord of the primitive community. The power of this primitive community had to be broken - and it was broken. But it was broken under such influences that directly appear to us as a decline, a fall in comparison with the high moral level of the old tribal society. The basest motives - vulgar greed, gross passion for pleasure, dirty stinginess, selfish desire to plunder the common property - are the heirs of a new, civilized, class society; the most vile means - theft, violence, deceit, betrayal - undermine the old classless tribal society and lead to its death. And the new society itself, during all the two and a half thousand years of its existence, has always presented only a picture of the development of an insignificant minority at the expense of an exploited and oppressed vast majority, and it remains so now to an even greater extent than ever before.
We now move on to another Morgan discovery that is at least as important as the recreation primitive form families based on kinship systems. Morgan proved that the tribal alliances within the tribe of the American Indians, indicated by the names of animals, are essentially identical with the genea of the Greeks and the gentes of the Romans; that the American form is the original, and the Greco-Roman is a later derivative; that the whole social organization of the Greeks and Romans ancient era with its gens, phratry and tribe finds its exact parallel in the organization of the American Indian; that the genus is an institution common to all peoples, up to their entry into the era of civilization and even beyond.
We have already seen above, when considering the punaluan family, what is the composition of the genus in its original form. It consists of all persons who, by means of a punaluan marriage and in accordance with the ideas inevitably prevailing in this marriage, form the recognized offspring of one particular ancestor, the founder of the genus. Since in this form of family the father cannot be established with certainty, only the female line is recognized. Since brothers cannot marry their sisters, but only women of a different origin, then, by virtue of maternal law, the children born to them by these strange women are outside the given genus. Thus, only the offspring of the daughters of each generation remains within the clan union; offspring of sons pass into the birth of their mothers.
As a classic form of this original genus, Morgan takes the genus from the Iroquois, in particular from the Seneca tribe. This tribe has eight genera bearing the names of animals 1) Wolf, 2) Bear, 3) Turtle, 4) Beaver, 5) Deer, 6) Kulik, 7) Heron, 8) Falcon. In each clan, the following customs prevail:
1. The clan chooses its sachem (elder for peacetime) and chief (military leader). The sachem had to be chosen from among the gens itself, and his position was hereditary within the gens, since upon liberation it had to be immediately replaced again, the military leader could be chosen not from the members of the gens, and at times he might not exist at all. The son of the previous sachem was never elected as sachem, since motherhood prevailed among the Iroquois, and the son, therefore, belonged to another line, but often the brother of the previous sachem or the son of his sister was elected. Everyone participated in the elections - men and women. But the election was subject to approval by the remaining seven clans, and only after that the chosen one was solemnly introduced into office and, moreover, by the general council of the entire Iroquois union.
2. . The gens deposes the sachem and the military leader at its discretion. Again, this is decided jointly by men and women. Displaced officials then become, like others, simple warriors, private individuals. However, the tribal council can also remove sachems, even against the will of the clan.
3. . None of the members of the clan can marry within the clan. This is the basic rule of the genus, the bond that holds it together, it is the negative expression of that very definite blood relationship, by virtue of which the individuals united by it only become a genus. With the discovery of a gens based on consanguinity and the impossibility of marriage between its members resulting from this, this nonsense dissipated by itself - Of course, at the stage of development at which we find the Iroquois, the prohibition of marriage within the gens is inviolably observed.
4. The property of the dead passed to the rest of the members of the clan, it had to remain within the clan. In view of the insignificance of the objects that the Iroquois could leave behind, his inheritance was divided among his closest relatives; in the event of a man's death, his siblings and mother's brother; in the event of a woman's death, her children and sisters, but not brothers. For the same reason, husband and wife could not inherit each other, nor could children inherit from their father.
5. Members of the clan were obliged to provide each other with assistance, protection, and especially assistance in revenge for the damage caused by strangers. In protecting his safety, the individual relied on the protection of the clan and could count on it; whoever harmed him harmed the whole family.
6. The clan has certain names or groups of names that only it can use in the whole tribe, so that the name individual person also indicates to which genus it belongs. FROM generic name tribal rights are inextricably linked.
7. . The clan can adopt strangers and in this way accept them as members of the whole tribe. The prisoners of war, who were not killed, thus became, by virtue of adoption in one of the clans, members of the Seneca tribe and thereby acquired all the rights of the clan and tribe. Adoption took place at the suggestion of individual members of the clan: at the suggestion of men who accepted an outsider as a brother or sister, or at the suggestion of women who accepted him as their child; for the approval of such an adoption, a solemn adoption into the clan was necessary. Often individual clans, numerically weakened due to exceptional circumstances, were thus again quantitatively strengthened by mass adoption of members of another clan, with the consent of the latter.
8. . It is difficult to establish the presence of special religious festivals among Indian families; but the religious ceremonies of the Indians are more or less connected with the genus
9. . The clan has a common burial place. Among the Iroquois of the state of New York, pressed on all sides by whites, it has now disappeared, but it used to exist. Other Indians still retain it, such as, for example, the Tuscarora, who are closely related to the Iroquois, who, despite the fact that they are Christians, have a special row in the cemetery for each clan, so that the mother is buried in the same row with the children, but not a father.
10. . The clan has a council - a democratic assembly of all adult members of the clan, men and women, with equal voting rights. This council elected and removed the sachems and military leaders, as well as the rest of the "keepers of the faith"; he issued rulings on ransom (vergeld) or blood feud for the murdered members of the clan; he accepted strangers into the family. In a word, he was the supreme authority in the genus
The functions of the phratry among the Iroquois are partly social, partly religious. 1) In the game of ball, the phratries oppose one another; each nominates its best players, the rest follow the game, arranged in phratries, and bet with each other, betting on the victory of their players. - 2) In the tribal council, the sachems and the military chiefs of each phratry sit together, one group against another, each orator speaking, addressing the representatives of each phratry as a separate corporation. - 3) If a murder happened in a tribe, and the murderer and the murdered did not belong to the same phratry, then the affected clan often appealed to their fraternal clans; they then convened a council of the phratry and appealed to the other phratry as a whole, so that she, in turn, would gather her council to settle the matter. Here the phratry thus appears again as the original gens, and with greater chances of success than the weaker separate gens that descended from it. - 4) In the event of the death of prominent persons, the opposite phratry took care of the funeral and funeral celebrations, while the members of the phratry of the deceased participated in the funeral as relatives of the deceased. When a sachem died, the opposite phratry notified the allied council of the Iroquois of the vacancy. - 5) At the election of the sachem, the council of the phratry also came on the scene. The affirmation of the choice by the fraternal clans was taken for granted, as it were, but the clans of the other phratry could present objections. In such a case, the council of this phratry met; if he considered the objections to be correct, the election was invalidated. - 6) Previously, the Iroquois had special religious mysteries, called medicine-lodges by the whites. (*61) These mysteries among the Seneca tribe were organized by two religious brotherhoods that had special rules for initiating new members; each of the two phratries accounted for one such brotherhood. - 7) If, which is almost certain, the four lineages (tribes) that inhabited the four quarters of Tlaxcala at the time of the conquest were four phratries, then this proves that both the phratries among the Greeks and similar tribal unions among the Germans also had military significance. units; these four lineages went into battle, each as a separate detachment in its own form and with its own banner, under the command of its own leader.
What characterizes a separate Indian tribe in America?
1. Own territory and own name. Each tribe owned, in addition to the place of its actual settlement, a significant area for hunting and fishing.
2. . A special dialect peculiar only to this tribe. In reality, tribe and dialect are essentially the same; the new formation of tribes and dialects by division took place in America not long ago and has hardly ceased even now.
3. The right to solemnly inaugurate sachems and military leaders elected by the families.
4. . The right to depose them, even against the wishes of their kind. Since these sachems and war-chiefs are members of the tribal council, these rights of the tribe in relation to them are self-explanatory.
5. General religious ideas (mythology) and cult rites.
6. . Tribal council to discuss common affairs. It consisted of all the sachems and military leaders of the individual families, their true representatives, because they could be removed at any time; he sat in public, surrounded by other members of the tribe, who had the right to enter into discussion and express their opinion; the council made the decision.
7. . Among some tribes we find a supreme leader, whose powers, however, are very small. This is one of the sachems, which, in cases requiring immediate action, must take provisional measures before the council can meet and make a final decision.
Thus, at the latest at the beginning of the 15th century, a formalized "eternal alliance" was formed - a confederation, which, realizing the strength it had acquired, immediately acquired an offensive character and, at the time of its highest power, around 1675, conquered large areas surrounding it, partly driving it away, partly imposing tribute on local residents. The Iroquois Union represents the most developed social organization that the Indians have created who have not crossed the lowest stage of barbarism. The main features of the union were as follows:
1. The eternal union of five tribes related by blood on the basis of complete equality and independence in all internal affairs of the tribe. This blood relationship was the true basis of the union.
2. . The organ of the union was the allied council, which consisted of 50 sachems, equal in position and authority, this council made final decisions on all affairs of the union.
3. . The places for these 50 sachems, as holders of new offices specially established for the purposes of the union, were distributed among the tribes and clans at its creation.
4. . These allied sachems were also sachems in their respective tribes and had the right to participate and vote in the tribal council.
5. All resolutions of the Union Council were to be adopted unanimously.
7 The Union Council could be convened by each of the councils of the five tribes, but could not meet on its own initiative.
8. Meetings took place in the presence of the assembled people, each Iroquois could take the floor, but the decision was made only by the council.
9. In the union there was no single head, no person who headed the executive branch.
10 On the other hand, the union had two higher military leaders with equal powers and equal power
Such was the social system in which the Iroquois lived for over four hundred years and still live. The state presupposes a special public authority, separated from the totality of the persons permanently included in its composition.
this organization was doomed. She did not go further than the tribe, the formation of a union of tribes already means the beginning of her destruction, as we will see later and as we have already seen in the examples of the Iroquois attempts to enslave other tribes. Everything that was outside the tribe was outside the law. In the absence of a formal peace treaty, warfare reigned between the tribes, and this warfare was waged with that cruelty which distinguishes man from other animals and which only later was somewhat softened under the influence of material interests. The tribal system, which was in full bloom, as we observed it in America, assumed an extremely undeveloped production, consequently, an extremely rare population over a vast area, hence the almost complete subordination of a person to a hostilely opposing and incomprehensible surrounding nature, which is reflected in childishly naive religious representations. The tribe remained a boundary for a person both in relation to a foreigner and in relation to himself: the tribe, clan and their institutions were sacred and inviolable, they were that supreme power given by nature, to which the individual remained unconditionally subordinate in his feelings, thoughts and deeds. No matter how impressive the people of this era look in our eyes, they are indistinguishable from each other, they have not yet come off, in the words of Marx, from the umbilical cord of the primitive community. The power of this primitive community had to be broken - and it was broken. But it was broken under such influences that directly appear to us as a decline, a fall in comparison with the high moral level of the old tribal society. The basest motives - vulgar greed, gross passion for pleasure, dirty stinginess, selfish desire to plunder the common property - are the heirs of a new, civilized, class society; the most vile means - theft, violence, deceit, betrayal - undermine the old classless tribal society and lead to its death. And the new society itself, during all the two and a half thousand years of its existence, has always presented only a picture of the development of an insignificant minority at the expense of an exploited and oppressed vast majority, and it remains so now to an even greater extent than ever before.
Farmers of the east and southeast of North America. N-in - Delovars, Mohicans, to the south - Iroquois, to the Caribbean Sea - Sioux.
Iroquois. Appear on the territory of the Great Lakes between the 13th and 15th centuries. attitude as a whole as to the alien population. Farmers. Cultivation is a women's business, hard work (burning the forest, etc.) is on men. M business - hunting, fishing, war. We went on hikes on foot - there were no domesticated animals. Slash-and-burn agriculture. Hunting for coastal animals. basic social institution- a large maternal family. Matrilineality. A group of women are hostesses. Ovachira - housing, food storage. There is no sustainable marriage, it depended on women whether I would leave or stay. There were also male communities associated with the conduct of the war. Owachira as a union w. Men did not participate in the distribution of food. Land use system: in use 6-8 times more land than is being processed in a given period. The result is huge distances between settlements. Protection and hunting are the functions of m. Men are more responsible for raising their nephews.
Social organization:
Level 1 - sachem council (2 meters from the community, meets on important issues).
2nd level - council of sachems of each group (pressing issues, land, war).
Level 3 - phratries - marriage levels.
Level 4 - generic group. Upon reaching a certain age, the m leaves the mother's house for the m-phratry. Women are not allowed to council. Not developed system of priesthood and religious beliefs.
The Iroquois are a group of Native American peoples living in the United States and Canada. The name comes from the Algonquian "iroku", which means "true vipers", and was given by the French in the early 16th century to five Indian tribes. The Iroquois themselves called themselves Hodinonkhsoni, which translates as "the people of the long house."
Before the arrival of the Europeans North America The Iroquois lived south of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario in an area stretching west from Lake Erie and the headwaters of the Allegheny River to the Hudson River in the east.
The Seneca tribe lived in the west around Lake Erie. In the east, the tribes lived: Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawks. traditional dwelling of these tribes was the long house (ovachira), building material for which elm bark served. The whole family lived in this house. In the settlements of the Iroquois, there were from twenty to one hundred houses. Gardens and fields were laid out around the settlements.
The main source of existence of the Iroquois was stick-and-hoe agriculture, which was practiced by women. The main agricultural crop was maize, as well as beans and pumpkins. Important role hunting played in their life, giving meat and skins. She was the business of men. In the spring and summer, the men were also engaged in fishing. Women and children were engaged in gathering. Iroquois weaving was limited to the manufacture of belts and belts from vegetable fibers.
The form of social organization among the Iroquois was the clan. It was based on the collective ownership of land, fishing and hunting grounds.
Around 1570, south of Lake Ontario, the Union of Iroquois Tribes, or the so-called Hodenosauni League, was formed, which included five tribes: Oneida, Mohawks, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga. In 1722, the Tuscarrora tribe joined them.
The league established trade with the Dutch who appeared here at the beginning of the 17th century. The Indians supplied the Dutch with beaver fur. When the beavers in the territory occupied by the Iroquois were exterminated, the Dutch, obsessed with a thirst for profit, pushed the Indians to seize new territories and began to supply them with guns. Numerous wars began, later called the Bobrovs. The basis of the military success of the Iroquois was the excellent tactics of forest combat and the use of guns. Gradually, the Iroquois are ousting the Hurons, Ottawa and Mohicans from the region.
In 1664, the British, having captured New Amsterdam, took the place of the Dutch in trading with the Indians.
During the American Revolution, the British persuaded most of the League's tribal councils to support them. This ended up with the Iroquois being placed on the reservations of America and Canada. Their population has decreased several times compared to the 17th century.
Today, many Iroquois demand recognition of the independence of their lands. The village of Onondaga is their main center.
Iroquois, as mentioned above, is indigenous people America. We also invite you to get acquainted with the history, culture and life of the indigenous people of Australia. Australian Aborigines are few in number and make up only about one percent of the population of the continent.
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The functions of the phratry among the Iroquois are partly social, partly religious. 1) In the game of ball, the phratries oppose one another; each puts forward its best players, the rest watch the game, arranged in phratries, and wager with each other, betting on the victory of their players. - 2) In the council of the tribe, the sachems and military leaders of each phratry sit together, one group against another, each the speaker speaks, referring to the representatives of each phratry as to a special corporation. - 3) If a murder happened in a tribe, and the murderer and the murdered did not belong to the same phratry, then the affected clan often appealed to their fraternal clans; they then convened a council of the phratry and appealed to the other phratry as a whole, so that she, in turn, would gather her council to settle the matter. Here the phratry thus appears again as the original gens, and with greater chances of success than the weaker separate gens that descended from it. - 4) In the event of the death of prominent persons, the opposite phratry took care of the funeral and funeral celebrations, while the members of the phratry of the deceased participated in the funeral as relatives of the deceased. When a sachem died, the opposite fratri informed the Iroquois allied council of the vacancy. - 5) At the election of the sachem, the council of the phratry also came on the scene. The affirmation of the choice by the fraternal clans was taken for granted, as it were, but the clans of the other phratry could present objections. In such a case, the council of this phratry met; if he considered the objections to be correct, the election was invalidated. - 6) Previously, the Iroquois had special religious mysteries, called medicine-lodges by the whites [witchcraft gatherings. Ed.]. These mysteries among the Seneca tribe were arranged by two religious brotherhoods, which had special rules for the initiation of new members; each of the two phratries accounted for one such brotherhood. - 7) If, which is almost certain, the four lineages (tribes) that inhabited the four quarters of Tlaxcala at the time of the conquest 159 were four phratries, then this proves that both the phratries among the Greeks and similar tribal unions among the Germans also had a meaning military units; these four lineages went into battle, each as a separate detachment in its own form and with its own banner, under the command of its own leader.
As several gentes form a phratry, so several phratries, if we take the classical form, form a tribe; in some cases, significantly weakened tribes lack a middle link - a phratry. What characterizes a separate Indian tribe in America?
1. Own territory and own name. Each tribe owned, in addition to the place of its actual settlement, a significant area for hunting and fishing. Outside this region lay a vast no-man's-land, extending all the way to the possessions of the nearest tribe; among tribes with related languages, this band was narrower: among tribes not related to each other in language, it was wider. This strip is the same as the border forest of the Germans, the uninhabited region that the Suebi Caesar created around their territory; this is the same as isarnholt (in Danish Jarnved, limes Danicus) between Danes and Germans, the Saxon forest and branibor (in Slavonic - "protective forest"), from which Brandenburg got its name, between Germans and Slavs. The area, separated by such indefinite boundaries, constituted the common land of the tribe, was recognized as such by neighboring tribes, and the tribe itself defended it from encroachment. In practice, the indeterminacy of borders for the most part turned out to be inconvenient only when the population grew strongly. - The names of the tribes, apparently, for the most part arose by chance rather than were chosen consciously, over time it often happened that a tribe received a name from neighboring tribes that was different from the one by which it called itself, just as the Germans, their first historical common name "Germans" was given by the Celts.
