Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia

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Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia

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Title: Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia
Author: Northcote W. Thomas
Release Date: December 28, 2005 [EBook #17404]
Language: English
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_The Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series is supervised by an Editorial Committee consisting of WILLIAM RIDGEWAY, M.A., F.B.A., Disney Professor of Archaeology, A.C. HADDON, Sc.D., F.R.S., University Lecturer in Ethnology, M.R. JAMES, Litt. D., F.B.A., Provost of King's College and C. WALDSTEIN, Litt. D., Slade Professor of Fine Art._

KINSHIP ORGANISATIONS
AND
GROUP MARRIAGE
IN
AUSTRALIA

BY
NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS, M.A. Diplomé de l'école des Hautes-études, Corresponding Member of the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, etc.
CAMBRIDGE: at the University Press 1906

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C.F. CLAY, MANAGER,
London: FETTER LANE, E.C. Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
[Illustration]
Leipzig: F.A. BROCKHAUS. New York: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS. Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.

[_All Rights reserved._]

DEDICATED TO MISS C.S. BURNE, WHO FIRST GUIDED MY STEPS INTO THE PATHS OF ANTHROPOLOGY

PREFACE.
It is becoming an axiom in anthropology that what is needed is not discursive treatment of large subjects but the minute discussion of special themes, not a ranging at large over the peoples of the earth past and present, but a detailed examination of limited areas. This work I am undertaking for Australia, and in the present volume I deal briefly with some of the aspects of Australian kinship organisations, in the hope that a survey of our present knowledge may stimulate further research on the spot and help to throw more light on many difficult problems of primitive sociology.
We have still much to learn of the relations of the central tribes and their organisations to the less elaborately studied Anula and Mara. I have therefore passed over the questions discussed by Dr Durkheim. We have still more to learn as to the descent of the totem, the relation of totem-kin, class and phratry, and the like; totemism is therefore treated only incidentally in the present work, and lack of knowledge compels me to pass over many other interesting questions.
The present volume owes much to Mr Andrew Lang. He has read twice over both my typescript MS, and my proofs; in the detection of ambiguities and the removal of obscurities he has rendered my readers a greater service than any bald statement will convey; for his aid in the matter of terminology, for his criticisms of ideas already put forward and for his many pregnant suggestions, but inadequately worked out in the present volume. I am under the deepest obligations to him; and no mere formal expression of thanks will meet the case. I have been more than fortunate in securing aid from Mr Lang in a subject which he has made his own.
I do not for a moment suppose that the information here collected is exhaustive. If any one should be in a position to supplement or correct my facts or to enlighten me in any way as to the ideas and customs of the blacks I shall be obliged if he will tell me all he knows about them and their ways. Letters may be addressed to me c/o the Anthropological Institute, 3 Hanover Sq., W.
NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS.
BUNTINGFORD, _Sept. 11th, 1906._

CONTENTS.
PAGE PREFACE vii
CONTENTS ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY xii
INDEX TO ABBREVIATIONS xiv
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Social Organisation. Associations in the lower stages of culture. Consanguinity and Kinship. The Tribe. Kinship groups: totem kins; phratries Pages =1-11=
CHAPTER II.
DESCENT.
Descent of Kinship, origin and primitive form. Matriliny in Australia. Relation to potestas, position of