. Bulletin. Ethnology. 266 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144. Figure 26.—Seating order of the Clayoquot chiefs, for both feasts and potlatches. There were said to have been but four ranked seats anciently (1-4). After the successful conquest, the number was increased. All the seats from 1 to 10 belong to chiefs of the lutchaSktakaml lineage. In fairly recent times younger kinsmen have been given 12 seats in the area x; 10 of these are of the same lineage as the first 10 chiefs; the remaining 2 have been given to chiefs of the maseath and qatckisath groups. At feasts, war chiefs were seat
. Bulletin. Ethnology. 266 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144. Figure 26.—Seating order of the Clayoquot chiefs, for both feasts and potlatches. There were said to have been but four ranked seats anciently (1-4). After the successful conquest, the number was increased. All the seats from 1 to 10 belong to chiefs of the lutchaSktakaml lineage. In fairly recent times younger kinsmen have been given 12 seats in the area x; 10 of these are of the same lineage as the first 10 chiefs; the remaining 2 have been given to chiefs of the maseath and qatckisath groups. At feasts, war chiefs were seated in the area marked y. m, Commoners (men); w, women. INHERITANCE Since these prerogatives were of such tremendous import, it is only natural that much attention was paid to modes of passing them on. The inheritance of privileges was not inheritance as we custom- arily think of it. The rule was for a man's heirs to "inherit" his possessions long before his death. That is to say, from the first pot- latch a man gave for his child (which might be while it was yet un- born) he began to invest it with various of the hereditary rights. That was really what the display privileges were shown for. The giver announced that his child (the one in whose honor the affair was being given), had the right to use thus-and-so, recounted how it had come to the child, and then "showed" it. The new name the child received was just another privilege he was assuming. So it came about that by the time a child reached maturity, he or she had as- sumed nearly all the family rights: display privileges, seat, songs, dances, etc. His predecessor retired from the limelight, but until the young chief was experienced enough to assume full command the "retired chief" continued to direct rituals and affairs of state. The procedure by which rights were invested in an heir was always quite formal. The simplest was the potlatch just mentioned, given by the parent to announce that t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1901
