in tribes in the Status of savagery, in the Lower, in the Middle,
and in the Upper Status of barbarism on different continents, and in
full vitality in the Grecian and Latin tribes after civilization had
commenced. Every family of mankind, except the Polynesian, seems to
have come under the gentile organization, and to have been indebted
to it for preservation and for the means of progress. It finds its
only parallel in length of duration in systems of consanguinity,
which, springing up at a still earlier period, have remained to the
present time, although the marriage usages in which they originated
have long since disappeared.

From its early institution, and from its maintenance through such
immense stretches of time, the peculiar adaptation of the gentile
organization to mankind, while in a savage and in a barbarous state,
must be regarded as abundantly demonstrated.



THE PHRATRY.

The phratry (phratria) is a brotherhood, as the term imports, and a
natural growth from the organization into gentes. It is an organic
union or association of two or more gentes of the same tribe for
certain common objects. These gentes were usually such as had been
formed by the segmentation of an original gens.

The phratry existed in a large number of the tribes of the American
aborigines, where it is seen 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