W.H.R.Rivers

“ The system of kinship is of the kind known as ‘classificatory,’ and the customs to be described apply not only to the brothers of the mother, in the strict sense, but to all those males of the clan of the same generation as the mother whom the latter would call brother.
A man will cease fighting at once when told to do so by his maternal uncle. The power of the uncle is so great that a fight between the natives two hostile islands (Mobuiag and Moa) might be stopped if a man on one side saw his sister’s son among his enemies. ”

“ This power of stopping a fight is not possessed to the same extent by the father or mother, and a man may continue to fight even after the father or mother has given certain indications of the nearness of the bond between them and the son. The maternal uncle, on the other hand, stops a fight by a mere word. ”