Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines | Page 9

to arise by natural growth, and to stand as
the second member of the organic series, as among the Grecian and
Latin tribes. It did not possess original governmental functions, as the
gens tribe and confederacy possessed them but it was endowed with
certain useful powers in the social system, from the necessity for some
organization larger than a gens and smaller than a tribe and especially
when the tribe was large. The same institution in essential features and
in character, it presents the organization in its archaic form and with its
archaic functions. A knowledge of the Indian phratry is necessary to an
intelligent understanding of the Grecian and the Roman.
The eight gentes of the Seneca Iroquois tribe were reintegrated in two
phratries as follows:
First Phratry Gentes--1 Bear 2 Wolf 3 Beaver 4 Turtle Second Phratry
Gentes--5 Deer 6 Snipe 7 Heron 8 Hawk
Each phratry (De da non da a yoh) is a brotherhood as this term also
imports. The gentes in the same phratry are brother gentes to each other
and cousin gentes to those of the other phratry. They are equal in grade,
character, and privileges. It is a common practice of the Senecas to call
the gentes of their own phratry brother gentes and those of the other
phratry their cousin gentes, when they mention them in their relation to
the phratries. Originally marriage was not allowed between the
members of the same phratry but the members of either could marry
into any gens of the other. This prohibition tends to show that the
gentes of each phratry were subdivisions of an original gens and
therefore the prohibition against marrying into a person's own gens had
followed to its subdivisions. This restriction however was long since
removed except with respect to the gens of the individual. A tradition
of the Senecas affirms that the Bear and the Deer were the original
gentes, of which the others were subdivisions. It is thus seen that the
phratry had a natural foundation in the kinship of the gentes of which it
was composed. After their subdivision from increase of numbers there

was a natural tendency to their reunion in a higher organization for
objects common to them all. The same gentes are not constant in a
phratry indefinitely, as appears from the composition of the phratries in
the remaining Iroquois tribes. Transfers of particular gentes from one
phratry to the other must have occurred when the equilibrium in their
respective numbers was disturbed. It is important to know the simple
manner in which this organization springs up, and the facility with
which it is managed as a part of the social system of ancient society.
With the increase of numbers in a gens, followed by local separation of
its members, segmentation occurred, and the seceding portion adopted
a new gentile name. But a tradition of their former unity would remain
and become the basis of their reorganization in a phratry.
From the differences in the composition of the phratries in the several
tribes it seems probable that the phratries are modified in their gentes at
intervals of time to meet changes of condition. Some gentes prosper
and increase in numbers, while others, through calamities, decline, and
others become extinct; so that transfers of gentes from one phratry to
another were found necessary to preserve some degree of equality in
the number of phrators in each. The phratric organization has existed
among the Iroquois from time immemorial. It is probably older than the
confederacy which was established more than four centuries ago. The
amount of difference in their composition, as to the gentes they contain,
represents the vicissitudes through which each tribe has passed in the
interval. In any view of the matter it is small, tending to illustrate the
permanence of the phratry as well as the gens.
The Iroquois tribes had a total of thirty-eight gentes, and in four of the
tribes a total of eight phratries.
The phratry among the Iroquois was partly for social and partly for
religious objects. Its functions and uses can be best shown by practical
illustrations. We begin with the lowest, with games, which were of
common occurrence at tribal and confederate councils. In the ball game,
for example, among the Senecas, they play by phratries, one against the
other, and they bet against each other upon the result of the game. Each
phratry puts forward its best players, usually from six to ten on a side,
and the members of each phratry assemble together, but upon opposite
sides of the field in which the game is played. Before it commences,
articles of personal property are hazarded upon the result by members

of the opposite phratries. These are deposited with keepers to abide the
event. The game is played with spirit