Note 18 — Chapter IX · PARALLELS

This section will not be found confusing if it is read with the following points clearly in mind. A tribe is a political unit, a sib or clan or moiety a social unit forming one of several divisions of such a political unit. A tribe corresponds in savage or barbarous life to the state or nation among ourselves. The sib is a sort of enlarged family. The blood relationship is often mainly fictitious, but it is considered actual or treated as such, and is the basis of the prohibition of marriage within the sib. The origin of the sib seems to have been the family. The terms sib, clan, and gens are here used synonymously. Some writers restrict “clan” to sibs with descent in the female line, “gens” to sibs with male descent. Sib is perhaps the best general term, clan the one most used.