ABSTRACT
The structional ramifications of a kinship system become more intelligible when traced through the series of stages which mark the maturing life of a person. But what the textbooks call “ the life history of the individual” is most unsatisfactory for inclusion in a systematic arrangement of the general institutional scheme of a culture. It is a study of data from another point of view—a diachronic as opposed to a synchronic attitude. From the methodological standpoint too it is not the life history of any single individual that is described, but portions of the behaviour of a number of individuals that are assembled and generalized. But an adequate record in this field is hardly possible, and the following two chapters are frankly given as the result of a process of abstraction due to the fragmentary nature of the material.
