Kinship organisations and group marriage in Australia / by Northcote W. Thomas.

  • Northcote Whitridge Thomas
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Kinship organisations and group marriage in Australia / by Northcote W. Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/194 page 10
    of the Kutchin, but in the latter case our lack of knowledge of the tribe precludes us from saying whether totem kins exist among them, and, if so, how far the grouping is systematic; the Kutchin groups, according to one authority, are known by the generic names of birds, beasts, and fish. As a rule, how- ever, no classification of kins is found, nor are the phratry names specially significant Dual grouping of the kins is also found in New Guinea, the Torres Straits Islands, and possibly among the ancient Arabs^; but evidence in the latter case has not been systematically dealt with. Other peoples have a similar dichotomous organisation ; but it is either not based on the totem kins or they have fallen into the background. In various parts of Melanesia we find the people divided into two groups, each associated with a single totem or mythological personage, and sexual intercourse, whether marital or otherwise, is strictly forbidden between those of the same phratry^ In India the Todas have a similar organisation^, and the Wanika in East Africa^ Customs of residence and descent affect the distribution of the phratries within the tribe, no less than the composition of the local group. With patrilineal descent they tend to occupy the tribal territory in such a way that each phratry becomes a local group. With the disappearance of phratry names this would be transformed into a local exogamous group, which is, however, indistinguishable from the local group of the same nature which is the result of the development of a totem kin under similar conditions. As a rule kinship organisations descend in a given tribe either in the male line or in the female. Among the Ova- Herero, however, and other Bantu tribes, there are two kinds of organisation, one—the eanda—descending in female line and regulative of marriage, is clearly the totem kin ; property remains ^ MS. note from Dr Seligmann’s unpublished Report of Cook-Daniels Expedition ; Camb. Univ. Torres Sts Exped.^ v, 172 ; Man, 1904, no. 18. 2y. A. 7. xviii, 282. 3 Jifan, 1903, no. 97. ^ New, Travels, p. 274.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3