Page:Kinship and social organisation.djvu/41

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SOCIAL ORGANISATION
29

otherwise uses for his own children, and, conversely, a person applies to his father's sister's son a term he otherwise uses for his father. Thus, in the following diagram, C will apply to D and e the terms which are in general use for a son and daughter, while D and e will apply to C the term they otherwise use for their father.

DIAGRAM 2.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
B=a
 
 
 
 
A=b
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
C
 
D
 
 
 
e

In most forms of the classificatory system members of different generations are denoted in wholly different ways and belong to different classes,[1] but here we have a case in which persons of the same generation as the speaker are classed with those of an older or a younger generation.

I will first ask you to consider to what kind of psychological similarity such a practice can be due. What kind of psychological similarity can there be between one special kind of cousin and the father, and between another special kind of cousin and a son or daughter? If the puzzle as put in this form does not seem capable of a satisfactory answer, let us turn to see if the Banks Islanders practise any social custom to which this peculiar terminology can have been due. In the story of

  1. I leave out of account here those cases in which members of different generations are denoted by a reciprocal term.