"A good example of the clan sacrifice, in which a whole kinship
periodically joins, is afforded by the Roman sacra gentilicia. As
in primitive society no man can belong to more than one kindred, so
among the Romans no one could share in the sacra of two gentes--to
do so was to confound the ritual and contaminate the purity of the
gens. The sacra consisted in common anniversary sacrifices, in which
the clansmen honoured the gods of the clan, and after them the whole
kin, living and dead, were brought together in the service." [364]