For instance, the totemic groups cease to have direct connection with the marriage system, and, on the strength of the ceremonies associated with them, develop into what are known as secret societies.

Or, again, the clan is gradually overshadowed by the family, so that kinship, with its rights and duties, becomes practically limited to the nearer blood-relations; who, moreover, begin to be treated for practical purposes as kinsmen, even when they are on the side of the family which lineage does not officially recognize.

Thus the forms of natal association no longer constitute the backbone of the body politic.
Their public importance has gone.

Henceforward, the social unit is the local group.

The territorial principle comes more and more to determine affinities and functions.