live on the Colorado River) there are only vague
traditions and other faint traces; the taboos on foods now touch not a
particular clan but a whole tribe.

+499+. The coast tribes of Northwest America (in British Columbia and
the United States)[852] differ in social organization from the other
Indians in several respects, and particularly in the importance they
attach to rank, in their employment of the crest or badge, and in the
prominence they give to the individual guardian animal or spirit.

+500+. In the civil organization of the Carrier division of the Dene,
the Salish, the Kwakiutl, and other tribes, three or four castes or
groups are recognized: hereditary nobles; the middle class, whose
position is based on property; and the common folk; and to these is to
be added among some tribes the class of slaves. In the summer ceremonies
the men are seated according to class and rank. The family pride of the
nobles is great--every family has its traditions and pedigrees. In such
a scheme the zooenymous clan plays an insignificant part. Classes and
clans are mixed in the villages in which, for the most part, these
people live, and trade is prominent in their life. The curious custom of
the "potlatch"--a man invites his friends and neighbors to a gathering
and makes them magnificent presents, his reputation being great in
proportion to the extent of his gifts--appears to be a device for
laying up property; the host in his turn receives presents from friends
and neighbors.

+501+. The employment of a sacred object as a badge or crest, a sign of
tribal or clan position, is found, as is noted above,[853] in various
parts of the world: in the Torres Straits islands, in the Aru
archipelago (west of New Guinea), and in North America among the
Iroquois, the Lenape (Delawares), the Pueblos, and perhaps among the
Potawatamies. In these tribes, however, the role of the badge is
relatively unimportant--it is employed for decorative purposes, but does
not enter fundamentally into the organization of the clan or the tribe.
In Northwest America, on the other hand, it is of prime significance
both in decoration and in organization--it, to a great extent, takes the
place occupied elsewhere by the totem, and it is not always identical
with the eponymous object of the clan, though this may be an accidental
result of shifting social relations (new combinations of clans, or a
borrowing of a device from a neighbor).

+502+. _The crest._ T