Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1895) (14579640878)

Seri face painting
Identifier: annualreportofbu117smit (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Ethnology Indians
Publisher: Washington : U. S. Govt. Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Kahle/Austin Foundation and Omidyar Network



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ther, growingout of the great social advancement connected with the mental devel-opment—i. e., the eftect of the distinctively demotic organization ofthe human genus as represented by the Seri people. On consideringthis organization, it is found strictly maternal: the tribe is made up ofclans defined by consanguinity reckoned only in the female line; eachclan is headed by an elderwoman, and comprises a hierarchy of daugh-ters, granddaughters, and (sometimes) great-granddaughters, collect-ively incarnating that purity of uncontaminated blood whii-h is thepride of the tribe; and this fenmle element is supplemented by a mas-culine element iu the persons of brothers, who may be war-chiefs orshamans, and may hence dominate the movements of groups, but whose 1 The fundamental distinction is none tlie lesa valid by reason of tlie occasional combination offunctions, as in the antelope chrysanthemum interpreted by Seton-Thompson. BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL XXVI
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CHARACTERISTIC FACE PAINTING MCGEE) DESIfiXS MARK BLOOD-CARRIERS 169* blood counts as notbing in the establishment and maintenance of theclan organization. Tbus the females alone are the blood-carriers ofthe clans; they alone require ready and certain identification in orderthat their institutional theory and practice maybe maintained; andhence they alone need to become bearers of the sacred blood-standards.The warriors belong to the tribe, and are distinguished by luxuriantlyflowing hair, by the up stepping movement from which the peoplederive their appellation, by their unique archery attitude, and by theirdark skin-color: the boys count for little until they enter the warriorclass; but on the females devolves the duty of defining and maintain-ing the several streams of blood on which the rigidly guarded tribalintegrity depends. Undoubtedly the blood-markings play an impor-tant role in courtshii) and marriage, but too little is known of theesoteric life of the tribe to permit this r