CLAN IGael. chum, Ir. claim, eland, offspring, tribe. Welsh pima. offspring, children, Lat. planta, connected with Skt. hula, Lith. Lillis, family). A collection of families united under a chieftain, all claiming descent from a common stock. and possessed of a common surname. The word 'elan' has been adopted as the ethnological generic term. Synonyms and parallels have been sought in the -1 rabic hayy, the Greek )leoc, q nos, the Doman yens, the Russian ',lir, the German Gem/it/tic, the Swiss a/mend, the Irish and the North American otcm (totem). It is now well established, however. that in the primitive ludo-European organization of society several families. presumably kindred, united in a brotherhood (Greek opa.rpia, phratria So:1th Slavonic bratstro; Latin curia, house) ; several brotherhood, in a tribe (Creek drtfi. phyle, South Slavonic picnic. Latin tribus); and finally several tribes in a folk, or nation (Greek P9roc, Ohnos. Latin poiodus). Higher than the folk were loose federations merely of nations or poiodi. From this scheme it is clear that the primitive 'clan' is to he identified with the brotherhood rather than with the genos, tens. In fact, the Creek ;tiros is post Homeric. and therefore comparatively late; doubtless it became politically important with the rise of the aristocracy. The typical Creek ;ire(' was but a powerful family under a single leader: most probably in early Attica the chief of every noble ;/.roc had a seat in the great. aristocratic council (of the Areopagus). Put some Attie gene, were mere guilds of cop persmiths, of heralds, etc. The typical Latin ycas likewise developed frown the family, as is indicated by the of the gentile name from the personal name. and was also a compara tively late institution. Probably every patrician punts was olleP represented by its chief in the senate. Whereas the ,iron and yens are thus to have been monarchical. the rhratria, and the curia were aristocratic; the held the offices and priest hoods, and doubtless controlled the votes of the commons, many of whom were clients. In all essentials the bratstro resembles the guns yroas) of the Greeks. and Romans. The general prin ciples of clanship were common rights and duties, with to avenge one another's wrongs. The members were bound together, the sentiment of common origin and but also by the common worship of a protecting deity, from whom all claimed descent. After the introduction of Christianity among the South ern Slays, a patron saint took the place of the ancestral deity, who is still celebrated in song..
though shorn of his divine qualities. Much con fusion has arisen from identifying the clan with the village. The basis of the clan, tribe, and folk is kinship, real or assumed; the basis of the village. pupas, and eiritas is in sonic degree territorial—the idea of neighbor partly sup planting that of kin. in simpler words. all the villagers were not even presumably kinsmen. Thus the village was the first step in the develop ment of political society from tribal life. No theory of exogamy. metronymy. or of patriarchal government will apply to all clans: there are indications of a great variety of primitive usage. Apart from the Southern Slays and from sec tions of India, the Indo-European clan has con tinued most vital among the Celts, especially in the Highlands of Scotland. The fends of the clans and the struggle between these autono mous societies, on the one hand, and the cen tral Government on the other, made up a large part of the history of Scotland to the suppres sion of the Rebellion of 1745, after which the British Parliament enacted laws for the aboli tion of the hereditary jurisdiction of the Scot tish chieftains, and for the disarming of the clans. The influence of the system still lingers. however, in remote and sparsely populated dis tricts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Pastel de Coulanges, The AnBibliography. Pastel de Coulanges, The An- cient City (Eng. trans., Boston, 1889) ; Hearn, Tin' Aryan Household (London. 1789) : Early Laze and Custom (New York. 1883) : Zim mer, Altindisches Leben (Berlin, 1870) ; Mayne, Hindu Late and Usage (London, 1883) ; McLen nan, Studies in _Ancient History ( London, I8911) Morgan. Ancient •oeidy (New York, 18781: Leist, Gr•co-italisehe leeehtsge.schi•hte (•ena, 1584 ), and ltariselics Juts tient ium 1880) ; Schrader, Sprachreryleichung mid I 'r gcsehiehte (Jena. 1890)—very valuable: Meyer, Cesehi•hte des .11tertums. col. ii. (Stuttgart, 1893). For the true relation of the Greek and Roman yens to the other groups, consult: Krauss. Sitic mind Branch der Siidsla wen ( Vienna, 1885 ) ; Seebohm. Tribal System in wates Loudon, 1895) ; Skene, Celtic Scotland (3 vols., Edin 1876-80) ; of Gruel; aml Roman Antiquities (London. 1869) ; the articles "Germs" and "Genus" in Howard, Loot/ Constitn tionul History of 11tr United States, vol. i. (Bal timore, 1889). I.'or the relation of the clan to existing political institutions, see also TRIBE: SO CIOLOGY.