Some Aspects of the Name in Culture-History

Abstract

In tracing the folkways built about the name, much may be learned of the evolution of social institutions and the nature of social forces. Such a study reveals societal development as a lumbering movement unequally advancing throughout the world, retaining often the outworn as survivals and shot through with "inconsistencies" and minor variations form the general movement. The present essay is confined to the simplest or most undeveloped peoples. Here the customs of naming and the form of the name give significant insight into the organization, history, and ways of thought of these peoples. In particular, the transition from the matriarchal to the patriarchal form of the family is traced and the emergence with the latter form of more ordered and conventional mores. The striking custom of "teknonymy" is interpreted as an unusual step in this change.