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 recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

s between Aboriginal 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 people of north-eastern

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

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 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 language group from

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

have a four-section system. :::

Martuthunira

The Martuthunira language group from the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

have a four-section system. (The spelling indicates that the letters represent two distinct

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

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 where Martuthunira use .

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 ...

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 in the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

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, or Grandma and Grandpa, 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 m ...

'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, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

) great-great-grandmother.

Pintupi

The Pintupi 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 of Western Arnhem Land have a similar system; male forms begin with , the female forms with :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 for reference to 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, or in certain situations. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Abori ...

. *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.

References

External links

AustKin

Ausanthrop 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