AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS
Dana Weaver
Ant101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Prof. Steven Sager
Sept 2, 2012

In this paper, I will explain in detail how the kinship system works with the Australian Aboriginals. I will also explain how this system relates to how the live and interact in their society. I also want to compare their kinship system with ours here in America. The Aboriginals culture is a very complex and diverse culture. The Indigenous cultures of Australia are the oldest living culture in the world. “They go back at 50,000 years. ( http://australia.gov.au) They survived that long because of their ability to adapt to their environment and change over time. The Aboriginals are divided into small groups called clans. The clan’s usually had a common ancestor and they all considered themselves related.”(Australian.gov.au) Members of tribes distinguished themselves from each other through their dialects.” There were probably about 600 tribes within Australia in 1788, when the first Europeans arrived.” (indigenousaustralia.info)Tribes that spoke closely related dialects often grouped themselves together under the term of being a nation. “Australian Aboriginal kinship is the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Australian Aboriginal culture.”( wikipedia.org ) It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Australia. “The system of kinship put everybody in a specific relationship to each other as well special relationships with land areas based on their clan or kin. “Kinship influences marriage decisions and governs much of everyday behavior. By adulthood people know exactly how to behave, and in what manner, to all other people around them as well as in respect to specific land areas. Kinship is about meeting the obligations of one's clan, and forms part of Aboriginal Law, sometimes known as the Dreaming.”( austhrutime.com) People lived in family groups that consisted of parents and children with perhaps an aunt, an uncle, and one or two grandparents “Kinship is an integral part of the total social organization. The tribal members are sorted into categories with names used in each tribe. Relatives-in-law are often placed in the same categories.”( indigenousaustralia.info ) With the Aboriginals culture, you have a mother and a father that you would call mother or father. You also have the mother’s sister, who in our culture would be considered your aunt but the Aboriginals. She would be considered as your mother also and you would treat the same as if she is your biological mother. The same also goes with your father’s brother. That is a form of classificatory kinship. Your father’s sister is considered an aunt as well as your mother’s brother an uncle. “The statuses of the mother’s brother and father’s sister are an extension of the sibling relationship. This status involved special obligations and responsibilities in nearly all Aboriginal societies that could be combined with avoidance taboos. Such persons often have an important role in the initiation rituals of their brother's son or daughter, or sister's son or daughter.”( http://austhrutime.com ) But when it comes to marriage you are able to marry your father’s sister’s children as well as your mother’s brother children. In our culture that would be your first cousin and you wouldn’t be allowed to marry them because of the close relationship. Some relationships are thought of as being more binding than others. This is the case with same sex siblings, where conflict is ideally at a minimum. Brothers may compete for the same woman but if a man’s brother’s died his wife can be passed on to him. That is totally taboo in our culture but it happens but usually if both parties have a mutual love and understanding. Sisters are often close friends and this was often reinforced when they were also co-wives.” Polygamy is acceptable in this culture where as in ours it’s against the law. Competition for husbands or sweethearts is less noticeable between sisters, at least partly, because they can and may share the same husband. A man can have multiple wives if he wishes, and his circumstances permit it. “Children of same sex siblings are classified together, while opposite sex siblings may be distinguished by different terms. The local group organization is underlain be the structural principle equivalence of same sex siblings. Thus for this purpose, a man's father's father, father's brothers, father, brother's brothers, brothers, father's brothers' sons, sons, and brothers' sons are classified together. The same applies to his mother, his mother, mother's brother, mother's brother's son, etc.”( http://austhrutime.com)

One important aspect of kinship behavior is that an individual is allowed to approach and talk to some relatives but not to others. These avoidance rules applied to both blood and class relatives. In Aboriginals culture for instance the mother-in-law and husband don’t speak. It avoids conflict. Reciprocity in marriage is part of the wider principle.” Betrothal arrangements underline the fact that marriage is not simply a relationship between 2 people or nuclear families. In all tribes, in one way or another, there are structural implications. Those receiving a wife must make a repayment, at the time or at a future date, and the repayment doesn't have to be in kind. Men exchanging sisters or women exchanging brothers, as in bilateral cross-cousin marriages, is the simplest arrangement of this repayment” ( http://austhrutime.com) This can mean that a mother's brother's wife is actually a father's sister. In our culture there are no laws governing who speaks to whom. When two people get married they aren’t obligated to any type of reciprocity from the other family. In closing, in our culture we value family and respect them as with the Aboriginals. The difference is that we consider every one of our parents siblings as aunts and uncles we are not allowed to marry their children. If we have a disagreement we are allowed to talk things out because there aren’t any provisions on who can converse with whom. The things we have in common are usually in most cases a family will take care and support each other. But I believe if we adapt the way the Aboriginals handle conflict with in the tribes we would be a more peace people.
.

http://www.indigenousaustralia.info/social-structure/kinship.html http://austhrutime.com/kinship_systems.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-cultural-heritage obligations and responsibilities associated with the exchange. Where elopement is not institutionalised it represents a threat to this system. It upsets the balance of relationships between the persons or units involved and in that particular cycle of marriage arrangements. The basic kinship is the nuclear family, as well as being the basic social unit. With its core of husband and wife or wives it is also the usual medium of achieving sexual satisfaction. The structure of the majority of Aboriginal kin systems allowed for the opportunity for both men and women to find extra-marital sexual partners on a transient-mundane or transient-ritual or even romantic basis. This was achieved with the potential replacement of spouses, as well as allowing for parent surrogates. Extra-marital relations conventionally fit into this broad framework. In some places, as with the Dieri, the provision of secondary wives and as in western Arnhem Land the provision of secondary husbands. Kinship is always involved in interpersonal relationships. Usually kinship doesn't indicate relationship between groups or classes, simply between persons within those social groups. In north-eastern Arnhem Land the relationship between mada is an exception. Kinships are usually oriented genealogically with respect to any given person. Almost every person in that particular society can be expected to have a slightly different perspective within it. There are a number of factors that distinctive patterning is dependent on:

a. The number of kinship groups distinctly recognised and terminologically separated out. In some cases, as among the southern Aluridja, the few terms used do little more than indicate sex, generation level and marriage relationships. The people of north-eastern Arnhem Land had 25 main terms.

b. The preferred marriage type and the series of reciprocal exchanges associated with it.

c. The question of socially acceptable alternative marriages that could entail the rearrangement of personal genealogies and kin alignments, with the associated reshuffling of terms.

d. The question of irregular marriages that are thought to be wrong but not crucially wrong and those that are consistently condemned, and in the old tradition subject to severe sanctions, such as unions considered to be incestuous.

e. Factors influencing the range of marriage choice and the terminology used, such as local descent group, moiety, subsection, section and exogamy.

f. The method of distribution of responsibilities, rights and duties among various types of kin.

g. The form of totemism present in the area.

h. The fact that kinship systems were often modified to accommodate introduction of section or subsection system.

i. Questions of descent. Descent is central to reckoning the kinship system, relationships to and through one parent in terms of unilineal descent is emphasised. Overall kinship is bilateral. Recognition of descent in terms of other social categories can also be bilateral. Usually one is selected over the other, or one is made subordinate to the other.

Many white settlers thought that the Aboriginal way of life was backward and primitive and that it would be good for Aborigines to learn to live like white people. Today, however, most people realize that the Aboriginal culture was complex and well-adapted to the environment in which the first Australians lived.

The Aborigines’ ability to live throughout the continent and through major climate changes shows that they had good skills in learning to adapt to new and changing environments. Prior to the European colonization of Australia, Aborigines had complex social systems and beliefs that varied across the continent. Food gathering, fishing techniques, clothing and shelter, and languages developed in unique ways in each area. Many Aborigines sustain significant elements of their traditional lifestyle in contemporary times.

Aborigines were nomadic hunter-gatherers—that is, traveling people who found their food, water, and other resources by hunting or gathering. Aboriginal people did not settle on a specific piece of ground. They moved with the seasons and the food. They did not plant gardens or tame animals, except dingoes, wild dogs.

The Aborigines did not have the right to go everywhere, however. They divided the Australian continent and its coastal waters into defined areas called countries. Each country was inhabited by a group of people called a clan. Each clan had a common ancestor, and clan members considered one another family.

The idea of country has always been important for the Aboriginal people. A clan’s country provided people with food and water. People had the duty of taking care of their country, and they believed that their country had a duty to take care of them, too. When Europeans pushed Aboriginal people off their clan’s country, the Aborigines faced serious problems. Aborigines had many relationships outside of their own clan. They had relatives in other clans and could visit them. They had trading partners and religious partners who might support them for short periods. But no other social group, and no other country, had the duty of taking care of the Aborigines. The real security of their lives was in their own country. When they lost their country, they lost their security.

Clans did not live in isolation. They were part of larger groups, often called tribes. Members of tribes distinguished themselves from each other through their dialects. There were probably about 600 tribes within Australia in 1788, when the first Europeans arrived.

The Aborigines’ living site was called a camp. An Aboriginal camp was a living area that the Aborigines used for part of each year. The camp always had a fire as the focus, and the family put their sleeping area near the fire. The smoke on the horizon let other families know where they were. Women carried fire from one camp to the next. within the clan, tribe, and nation depended on age and knowledge. Aboriginal people gained knowledge through experience and participation in religious ceremonies. As the Aborigines gained experience and learned more about the country, the seasons, the behavior of animals, and the locations of plants and water, they became elders. Elders guided younger people, made the major decisions, and decided what to do with people who broke the rules.

The Aboriginal system of authority and leadership was organized to teach younger people and to keep troublemakers under control. Aboriginal leaders verbally disciplined people who broke the rules. Those Aborigines who continued to break rules were given a beating. Those who still broke rules faced banishment from their group. Expelled Aborigines were forced to find food and shelter with others. However, most groups did not want troublemakers. In extreme circumstances, Aboriginal leaders killed members of their group who repeatedly caused trouble.
According to Aboriginal beliefs, Dreamings created connections between groups of people and their country, and between groups of people and other animals and plants. The Dreaming tradition included a belief called totemism, which distinguishes tribes, clans, or families by linking them to a totem (natural object, usually a plant or animal). For example, one group of Aboriginal people is linked to the kangaroo totem and is, therefore, believed to be related to kangaroos. The kangaroo Dreaming is the ancestor of the kangaroo animals and of the kangaroo people. In some areas, a person's totem was regarded as