e of North American Indians, designated by animal names, are
essentially identical with the genea of the Greeks and the gentes of the
Romans; that the American form is the original from which the Greek and
Roman forms were later derived; that the whole organization of Greek and
Roman society during primeval times in gens, phratry and tribe finds its
faithful parallel in that of the American Indians; that the gens is an
institution common to all barbarians up to the time of civilization--at
least so far as our present sources of information reach. This
demonstration has cleared at a single stroke the most difficult passages
of remotest ancient Greek and Roman history. At the same time it has
given us unexpected information concerning the fundamental outlines of
the constitution of society in primeval times--before the introduction
of the state. Simple as the matter is after we have once found it out,
still it was only lately discovered by Morgan. In his work of 1871 he
had not yet unearthed this mystery. Its revelation has completely
silenced for the time being those generally so overconfident English
authorities on primeval history.

The Latin word gens, used by Morgan generally for the designation of
this sex organization, is derived, like the equivalent Greek word
genos, from the common Aryan root gan, signifying to beget. Gens, genos,
Sanskrit dschanas, Gothic kuni, ancient Norse and Anglesaxon kyn,
English kin, Middle High German kuenne, all signify lineage, descent.
Gens in Latin, genos in Greek, specially designate that sex organization
which boasted of common descent (from a common sire) and was united into
a separate community by certain social and religious institutions, but
the origin and nature of which nevertheless remained obscure to all our
historians.

Elsewhere, in speaking of the Punaluan family, we saw how the gens was
constituted in its original form. It consisted of all individuals who by
means of the Punaluan marriage and in conformity with the conceptions
necessarily arising in it made up the recognized offspring of a certain
ancestral mother, the founder of that gens. Since fatherhood is
uncertain in this form of the family, female lineage is alone valid. And
as brothers must not marry their sisters, but only women of foreign
descent, the children bred from these foreign women do not belong to the
gens, according to maternal law. Hence only the offspring of the
daughters of every generation remai