Aboriginal Australian kinship comprises the systems of
Aboriginal customary law governing social interaction relating to
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
in traditional
Aboriginal cultures. It is an integral part of the culture of every
Aboriginal group across Australia, and particularly important with regard to
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
s between
Aboriginal people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
.
The subsection system
Subsection systems are a unique social structure that divide all of Australian Aboriginal society into a number of groups, each of which combines particular sets of kin. In Central Australian Aboriginal English vernacular, subsections are widely known as "skins". Each subsection is given a name that can be used to refer to individual members of that group. Skin is passed down by a person's parents to their children.
The name of the groups can vary. There are systems with two such groupings (these are known as '
moieties' in kinship studies), systems with four (sections), six and eight (subsection systems). Some language groups extend this by having distinct male and female forms, giving a total of sixteen skin names, for example the Pintupi (listed below) and Warlpiri. While membership in skin groups is ideally based on blood relations, Australian Aboriginal subsection systems are classificatory, meaning that even people who are not actual blood relations are assigned to a subsection. They are also universal, meaning that every member of the society is assigned a position in the system.
Subsection systems are found in Aboriginal societies across much of Central, Western and Northern Australia. On the basis of detailed analysis and comparison of the various subsection systems and their terminologies, and in particular the apparent prefix /j-/ for male and /n-/ for female, it has been identified as a social innovation originally from the Daly River region of the Northern Territory, which then spread rapidly southwards to other groups.
Systems with two groupings (moieties)
Yolngu
The
Yolŋu
The Yolngu or Yolŋu () are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumata, M ...
people of north-eastern
Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
divide society (and much of the natural world) into two
moieties: ''Dhuwa'' and ''Yirritja''. Each of these is represented by people of a number of different groups (each with their own lands, languages and philosophies) through their
hereditary
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...
estates – so many things are either ''Yirritja'' or ''Dhuwa'':
:::
Fish, stone, river, sea etc., belongs to one or the other moiety. Things that are not either Dhuwa or Yirritja are called ''wakinŋu''. Yolŋu also have a kinship system with eight subsections (four Dhuwa and four Yirritja which is what creates moiety).
Systems with four sections
Gamilaraay
The
Gamilaraay
The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...
language group from
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
have a four-section system.
:::
Martuthunira
![Nom-peau-marthutunira](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Nom-peau-marthutunira.png)
The
Martuthunira language group from the
Pilbara
The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...
region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
have a four-section system. (The spelling ''l.y'' indicates that the letters represent two distinct
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s, and are not a
digraph).
:::
Similar systems are found across most language groups in the Pilbara, though with some variation in the forms of the names. For example, speakers of
Ngarla use ''Milangka'' where Martuthunira use ''Pal.yarri''.
Alyawarra
The
Alyawarre language group from
Central Australia
Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...
also have a four-section system, but use different terms from the Martuthunira.
:::
Systems with eight groups (subsection systems)
Lardil
The
Lardil of
Mornington Island
Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington (Queensland), Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley I ...
in the
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...
have eight subsection groups, shown here with some of their totems:
::
Each Lardil person belongs to one of these groups. Their paternal
grandfather
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic ...
's subsection determines their own; so a Balyarriny man or woman will have a Balyarriny grandfather. Members of each group may only marry members of one other, specified, group.
Once a person's subsection group is known, their relationship to any other Lardil 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.
The mechanics of the Lardil skin system means that generations of males cycle back and forth between two subsections. ''Ngarrijbalangi'' is father to ''Bangariny'' and ''Bangariny'' is father to ''Ngarrijbalangi'' and similarly for the three other pairs of subsections. Generations of women, however, cycle through four subsections before arriving back at the starting point. This means that a woman has the same subsection name as her (
matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
) great-great-grandmother.
Pintupi
![Nom-peau-mariage](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Nom-peau-mariage.png)
The
Pintupi
The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into the ...
of the
Western Desert also have an eight-subsection system, made more complex by distinct forms for male and female subsection names; male forms begin with "Tj", the female forms with "N". The
Warlpiri system is almost the same:
:::
Kunwinjku
The
Kunwinjku
The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer t ...
of
Western Arnhem Land have a similar system; male forms begin with "Na", the female forms with "Ngal":
[Etherington, Steven; Etherington, Narelle, ]
Kunwinjku Kunwok : a short introduction to Kunwinjku language and society
', Kunwinjku Language Centre, 1996,
:::
Each person therefore has a
patrimoiety and a
matrimoiety, a father's and a mother's subsection group.
Extension of the system to non-relatives
Outsiders who have significant interaction with such groups may be given a 'skin name', commonly based on the people they have interacted with and the types of interaction.
Some common kinship terms used in Aboriginal English
The variety of English used by many Australian Aboriginal people employs kinship terms in ways that are based on their equivalents in Australian Aboriginal languages.
*''Aunty'' and ''uncle'' are terms of address for older people, to whom the speaker may not be related.
*''Brother'' and ''sister''—as well as siblings this term is used to refer to children of one's mother's sister and of father's brother (cousin), just as in many indigenous languages.
*''Cousin-brother'' and ''cousin-sister'' are often used to refer to children of one's mother's sister and father's brother.
*''Cousin'' refers to children of one's father's sister and mother's brother, but may be extended to any relative of one's own generation, such as one who might share the same great-grandparent, which is a second-cousin in Aboriginal terms.
*In south-east Queensland, ''daughter'' is used to refer to any woman of one's great-grandparents' generation. This is due to the cyclical nature of traditional kinship systems and mirrors usage in many Australian languages.
*''Father'' and ''mother'' include any relative of one's parents' generation, such as uncles, aunts, their own cousins 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
avoidance speech
Avoidance speech is a group of sociolinguistic phenomena in which a special restricted speech style must be used in the presence of or in reference to certain relatives. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Aboriginal languages and Aust ...
.
*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 father'' or ''little bit father'' is a man of one's father's generation not closely related to the speaker. Usually having a ''second mother'' is having a woman of your own mother's generation who seems to act like a mother and would most likely care for you if anything were to happen to your own parents. It is contrasted with ''close'', ''near'' or ''true''.
*A ''skin'' or ''skin group'' is a section determined by the skin of a person's parents, and determines whom a person is eligible to marry.
*''Son'' can refer to any male of the next generation, such as nephews, just as ''daughter'' can refer to any female of the next generation, including nieces.
See also
*
Noongar kin systems
*
Warlpiri kinship
References
Further reading
* Binnion, Joan (1979) ''The Lardil People of Mornington Island (Student Handbook)'', Aboriginal Community College, Port Adelaide.
* Dousset, Laurent, 2011, ''Australian Aboriginal Kinship: An introductory handbook with particular emphasis on the Western Desert'', Marseille, Pacific-credo Publications.
* Hansen, Kenneth C. and Lesley E. Hansen, 1979, ''Pintupi/Luritja kinship'', Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Institute for Aboriginal Development.
External links
AustKinAusanthrop kinship tutorialAusanthrop*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Aboriginal Kinship
Kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
Anthropology
Marriage, unions and partnerships in Australia