Abstract
In Tonami-Region, there are many communities devided into two parts (two main geograpraphical districts), and each pair has its own name such as uppre-lower, east-west, higher-lower and others. And there are reciprocal and competitive functions abont religious and political matters between these two parts. I can not say that it ought to be called as the dual organisation akin to that recognized among primitive societies. In this region, however, most of which consists of deluvial fan and its surrounding mountains, the institution has considerable functions or roles in their coumuity life. For competition between two parts must have functioned as a stimulus for improvement on exploitation, cultivation and others, and the principle of political democracy through this institution was a kind of soothing medicine against in-group antagonisms. Therefore, the problems in this article are snmmarized as follows:
(1) The dual division in the plain communities tends to transform itself into more elaborate and formal one. So the process of disorganization is obvious, and at present it is observed clearly only in childrens society and religious features. The institution is going to die out here.
(2) In the mountain communities, on the contrary, it tends to be complicated and specialized one more and more. Crystalization of many other institntions into powerful dual division might be supposed here.
(3) Dual division or dual organization ought to be said as an expression of democratic situation of societies, and at the same time it must be complementary to class or social stratification systems. If so, I would like to undrstand that the above mentioned two cases suggest the two directions of evolutional scheme at the same time. It is too mnch to say that the so called “dual organization” in primitive society is a specialized form of the latter case.
