TRIBE (Lat. tribus, tribe; possibly con nected with !Tabs. beam, Oscan triiboin, Lith. trobd, building, ()Welsh, OBret. tie b, habitation, subdivision of the people, Goth. parirp, field, OHG. dorf, Ger. Dorf, Eng. thorp, village, or perhaps rather with Lat. tres, three, ef. Gk. rpuPhe, triphyes, Skt. tribhu, threefold, in al lusion to the three legendary tribes of early Rome; hardly connected with Gk. arp6yrroc, atrygetos, unfruitful, or with OChurch Slay.
010, market-place). In general, an inter related group, as a group of individuals defined on the basis of relationship; specifically, a eon sangnineal group of mankind. In savagery the social organization rests on the basis of kinship traced in the female or maternal line. Usually the family comprises the mother with her chil dren. The rude of the husband and father is often that of a perpetual guest possessing little if any right over property or person; while the several families of sisters (i.e. daughters of the same mother) form a elan of which the mother or elderwomnan is the lawgiver and her eldest brother the executive or chief. Commonly sev eral such clans coexist and are united on the basis of real or assumed sisterhood of the elder women or on some other basis connected in some way with kinship: and the union constitutes a tribe in the specific sense of the term. Ordi narily the tribe is perpetuated by marital regu lations; mating is usually proscribed within the clan, which thereby becomes exogamous, and prescribed within the tribe, which is thereby ren dered endogamous, and in more primitive so cieties. such as that of the Australian natives and that of certain American aborigines, the laws are complex and restrict intermarriage to certain clans and even to a certain order within these clans. While the elderwomen remain law
givers in the tribe as in the clan, the larger or ganization requires enlarged executive powers, which are usually vested in elder brothers of the matrons, so that the control is measurably or wholly avuncular. In a still further enlargement of the group by multiplication of families the chiefs assume added prerogatives, and their power may rise above the kinship bonds and may even become hereditary, so that a reigning clan may be established. In the somewhat more advanced culture commonly called barbarism the family and tribal organization undergo a change; paternity is recognized and kinship is traced in the male lines; and commonly the father assumes control of property and person. exercising author ity not only over his children, but over his wife or wives. This stage is that of patriarchy with its concomitants of enslavement and polygamy. In the patriarchal condition the group of closely related families forms a Bens, while the less closely related gentes are usually organized in a tribe under a common chieftaincy. The organiza tion is perpetuated partly by means of marital customs and partly by means of property regula tions, while the chiefship may he determined in various ways; yet the fundamental idea of the social organization or law remains that of kin ship or consanguinity, either real or assumed. The chief function of the tribe is military, while that of the clan is juristic. The social organiza tion on this basis is conveniently styled tribal society, in contradistinction from the national society found among Peoples organized on a territorial basis. Consult: Morgan, Ancient So ciety (New York, 1877) ; Maine, _Incient Lair.