Australian Aboriginal kinship

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Australian Aboriginal kinship refers to the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Aboriginal culture. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Australia.

The main element is the division of clans within the same language group into skin groups, or moieties. In its simplest form, clans are divided into two skin groups. There may be four divisions (see Martu), while more complex systems can be divided into eight (see Pintupi and below).

The system dictates who may marry whom – it is always taboo to marry into your own skin group – creating strong incest avoidance laws and strong bonds across clans through exogamous relations. While it can be determined at birth who will marry whom, love marriages were not uncommon, so long as they were within the skin system.

This system is invaluable, especially during drought or lack of resources, having cousins and skin sisters and brothers in other clans. It also creates obligations to care for those people in their time of need. Even in traditional ball games, teams were divided along these lines.

Each skin group has certain totems associated with it. Some Aboriginal groups, such as the Yolngu, include plants, animals and all aspects of the environment, as part of their respective skin groups.

A person of the same skin group, of the same generation, is called "brother" or "sister". There are names for maternal aunts and uncles and different names for paternal aunts and uncles. Additionally, there are strong avoidance relationships that need to be observed based on this system.

Contents

[edit] Some common kinship terms

Main article: Australian Aboriginal English
  • Aunty and uncle are used as terms of address for older people, to whom the speaker may not be related.
  • Brother and sister include close relatives of the same generation, not just siblings.
  • Cousin includes any relative of one's own generation.
  • The combinations cousin-brother and cousin-sister are used to refer to biological cousins.
  • In south-east Queensland, daughter is used to refer any woman of one's great-grandparents' generation. This is due to the cyclical nature of traditional kinship systems.
  • Father and mother include any relative of one's parents' generation, such as uncles, aunts, and in-laws.
  • Grandfather and grandmother can refer to anyone of one's grandparents' generation. Grandfather can also refer to any respected elderly man, to whom the speaker may not be related.
  • Poison refers to a relation one is obligated to avoid. See Mother-in-law language.
  • The term second, or little bit in northern Australia, is used with a distant relative who is described using a close kinship term. For example, one's second fathers or little bit fathers are men of one's father's generation not closely related to the speaker. It is contrasted with close, near or true.
  • A skin or skin group are sections which are determined by the skin of a person's parents, and determine who a person is eligible to marry.
  • Son can refer to any male of the next generation, such as nephews.


The skin group classification is cyclical in nature, changing with each generation. Non-Aboriginal people are often confounded to hear Aborigines refer to their great-grandmother as their daughter, or their great-grandaughter as their mother. They are actually referring to the fact that those relatives are in the same skin group, as well as acknowledging the cyclical nature of the system.

For traditional Aborigines, this system is a major foundation of their existence and way of viewing the world. As such, if a non-Aboriginal person is around their culture for any extended period, they must be adopted so they may be assigned a skin name and interact in the "proper way" with the group, knowing whom to avoid, whom to call sister, etc.

Many Aboriginal groups, particularly in the southeast of Australia, have lost this knowledge due to their forced removal to missions and children's homes, where many language groups mixed with each other, and Aboriginal language and cultural practice was forbidden.

Below are a few examples of different kinship systems from across Australia:

[edit] Systems with two skin groups

[edit] Pitjantjatjara

The Pitjantjatjara of northern South Australia have two moiety groups:

ngana nt arka (lit. we-bone) 'our side'
tjanamilytjan (lit. they flesh) 'their side'

However, they do not use skin names.

[edit] Yolŋu

For the Yolŋu of north-east Arnhem Land, life is divided into two skin groups: Dhuwa and Yirritja. Each of these is represented by people of a number of different groups, each with their own lands, languages and philosophies:

Skin name Clan groups
Yirritja Gumatj, Gupapuyngu, Wangurri, Ritharrngu, Mangalili,
Munyuku, Madarrpa, Warramiri, Dhalwangu, Liyalanmirri.
Dhuwa Rirratjingu, Galpu, Djambarrpuyngu, Golumala, Marrakulu,
Marrangu, Djapu, Datiwuy, Ngaymil, Djarrwark.

A Yirritja person must always marry a Dhuwa person and vice versa. If a man or woman is Dhuwa, their mother will be Yirritja.

Kinship relations are also mapped onto the lands owned by the Yolngu through their hereditary estates – so everything is either Yirritja or Dhuwa – every fish, stone, river, etc, belongs to one or the other moiety.

[edit] Systems with eight skin groups

[edit] Lardiil

The Lardiil of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria have eight skin groups, shown here with some of their totems:

Male skin group Totems Can only marry
female skin group		 Children will be
Ngarrijbalangi Rainbird, shooting star,
egret		 Burrarangi Bangariny
Bangariny Brown hark, turtle Yakimarr Ngarrijbalangi
Buranyi Crane, salt water,
sleeping turtle		 Kangal
Balyarriny Black tiger shark,
sea turtle		 Kamarrangi
Burrarangi Lightning, rough sea,
black dingo		 Ngarrijbalangi
Yakimarr Seagull, barramundi,
grey shark		 Bangariny
Kangal Barramundi,
grey shark		 Buranyi
Kamarrangi Rock, pelican, brolga,
red dingo		 Balyarriny

Each Lardiil person belongs to one of these groups. Their paternal grandfather's skin group determines their own; so a Balyarriny man or woman will have a Balyarriny grandfather. A Ngarrijbalangi person can only marry a Burrarangi, a Bangariny a Yakimarr, a Buranyi a Kangal and a Balyarriny a Kamarrangi, and vice versa for each.

Once a person's skin group is known, their relationship to any other Lardiil can be determined. A Ngarrijbalangi is a 'father' to a Bangariny, a 'father-in-law' to a Yakimarr and a 'son' to another Bangariny, either in a social sense or purely through linearship.

[edit] Pintupi

The Pintupi of the Western Desert also have eight skin groups, made more complex by distinct prefixes for male and female skin names; "Tj" for males, "N" for females. The Warlpiri system is almost the same:

Gender Skin name First marriage
preference		 Children will be
Male Tjapaltjarri Nakamarra Tjungurrayi, Nungurrayi
Female Napaltjarri Tjakamarra Tjupurrula, Napurrula
Male Tjapangati Nampitjinpa Tjapanangka, Napanangka
Female Napangati Tjampitjinpa Tjangala, Nangala
Male Tjakamarra Napaltjarri Tjupurrula, Napurrula
Female Nakamarra Tjapaltjarri Tjungurrayi, Nungurrayi
Male Tjampitjinpa Napangati Tjangala, Nangala
Female Nampitjinpa Tjapangati Tjapanangka, Napanangka
Male Tjapanangka Napurrula Tjapangati, Napangati
Female Napanangka Tjupurrula Tjakamarra, Nakamarra
Male Tjungurrayi Nangala Tjapaltjarri, Napaltjarri
Female Nungurrayi Tjangala Tampitjinpa, Nampitjinpa
Male Tjupurrula Napanangka Tjakamarra, Nakamarra
Female Napurrula Tjapanangka Tjapangati, Napangati
Male Tjangala Nungurrayi Tjampitjinpa, Nampitjinpa
Female Nangala Tjungarayyi Tjapaltjarri, Napaltjarri

Each person therefore has a patrimoiety and a matrimoiety, a father's and a mother's skin group.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Binnion, Joan (1979) The Lardil People of Mornington Island (Student Handbook), Aboriginal Community College, Port Adelaide.
  • Hansen, Kenneth C. and Lesley E. Hansen, 1979, Pintupi/Luritja kinship, Alice Springs, NT, Institute for Aboriginal Development.
  • Ausanthrop kinship tutorial
  • Ausanthrop
  • Central Land Council
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