An Australian Aborigine kinship system
(http://thednaexchange.com/tag/pedigrees/) Aboriginal extended family. Postcard from North Coolgardie Blacks, W.A.
(http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_aboriginal_traditional_society/index1.htm) |
Kinship
The Aboriginal kinship system relates everyone to each other. The three main aspects of this system are: physical structuring, religious structuring and social structuring. For non-Aboriginal people the kinship system can be quite difficult to comprehend, but for natural born Aboriginals it is a part of their life. Tribes have around 500 people in each with around 10-20 people in each band. Day to day these bands join together to go gathering and hunting for food. A band is often called a ‘horde’, in which there are several families. Religiously, Australia is mostly separated into two moieties. They are based on ancestors from the creation period. Plants, animals and places are highly religious within each moiety. Moieties can be separated into sections or subsections. The kinship system allows each Aboriginal person to be in relation to one another. In an Aboriginal community, when an aboriginal person goes to live with them, they tell their friends they have been accepted into that group and are appointed a father or mother, brother or sister, son or daughter to someone. Before that outsider is accepted into their society, they name that person in relation to themselves. They do this because that person must have a defined social position, so they have in their own minds their relation to that person. A significant aspect of kinship behaviour is that an Aboriginal may talk to and approach some relatives but not others. Both blood and class relatives apply to these avoidance rules. Although there are these restrictions it does not mean they don’t like each other. They have this rule to maintain respect between certain classes of relatives. To exchange information with someone you are not permitted to speak with, you must find a third person to pass on the information. The aborigines use different terms to specify who you are in relation to others. A mother and child are called Ngama –rlang and the mother’s sister and her sister’s child are called Mami –geja. |
An Australian Aborigine tribe with tourists (http://guides.wikinut.com/Almost-Lost-in-Time%3A-The-Aborigine-of-Australia,-Part-III-Tribal-Laws,-Art,-and-Music/7wi4a3v_/)