Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia Part 2

It has been remarked above that there is no well-established case of the right of betrothal being a.s.signed on patrilineal principles in a matrilineal tribe. The influence of the father's brother is not necessarily a mark of patrilineal tendencies, except in so far as all patria potestas is such. That the elder brother has authority in this case is no more decisive than that the elder brother has authority in cases of betrothal; it is no more an exemplification of the simple patria potestas, which has already been shown to be universal and under but slight limitations so far as the wife is concerned. From the point of view of potestas, it is a great advance that the father should be able to dispose of his own daughter in marriage; but if we may judge by the survival of matria potestas into patriliny, the cases of patria potestas under matriliny cannot have exercised an important influence in bringing about a change in the rule of descent.

The case of the power of the girl's own brother is somewhat different.

_Prima facie_ it appears to owe its origin to the fact that it is the brothers who are mainly interested in the transaction, inasmuch as it is to them that wives come in exchange for the sisters given in marriage.

Consequently we cannot, as has already been the case with the so-called levirate, a.s.sign the practice definitely either to matripotestal or patripotestal customs, for father's and mother's authority are alike overruled.

It has already been stated that we have but few data for estimating the influence of the right of betrothal on the rule of descent. Clearly the father has little to gain from the fact that his daughter follows him rather than the mother, when the inevitable effect of the marriage regulations is to make her children of the phratry and totem of her husband, and consequently to make them of a different phratry and totem from her father. Under matriliny on the other hand there is nothing to prevent the grandchildren from being of the same totem as the grandfather, and they are necessarily of the same cla.s.s in a four-cla.s.s tribe. If considerations with regard to the phratry and totem of the grandchildren played any part in bringing about a change in the rule of descent, this must have been based on a review of the changes that would be brought about in the position of the son's and not the daughter's offspring. But this is unlikely.

But on the other hand the father's disposal of the daughter's hand is indirectly a means of increasing his influence both with his son and in general. If the son gains his wife by an exchange of sisters, the father's authority is obviously increased. But we do not know how far this factor of the right of betrothal has operated.

Turning now to questions of inheritance, we find that properly speaking the hereditary chief is unknown in Australia. There is a tendency for the son of the tribal headman to succeed his father, but it is subject to exceptions. Moreover, it is by no means a universal rule for the tribe to have an over-headman; it may be ruled by the council of district headmen. In any case the influence of the quasi-hereditary character of the over-headmans.h.i.+p upon the rule of descent cannot but have been comparatively slight.

It is, on the other hand, usual for the local group and the totem kin to have headmen. In the case of the latter, age is often the qualification, as among the Dieri[27]; in such cases there is no possible effect on the rule of succession. But among some of the Victorian tribes with matrilineal descent the rule is for the son to follow the father in the headmans.h.i.+p[28]; and the same is the case, as we should expect, among the patrilineal eight-cla.s.s tribes[29]. The most important tribe in which hereditary headmans.h.i.+p is combined with female descent is the Wiradjeri[30]; their neighbours, the Kamilaroi, showed marked respect to the son of a headman, if he possessed ability, though they did not, apparently, make him his father's successor[31].

On the whole, then, we cannot a.s.sign much weight to this element in the list of possible causes of the transition.

Of inheritance of chattels or land and fixtures we know little. From Spencer and Gillen we learn that among the Warramunga the mother's brother, or daughter's husband, succeeds to the boomerangs, and other moveable property[32]. Among the Kulin and the Kurnai inheritance in the male line seems to have been the rule. In the Adelaide district, as we learn from Gerstaecker[33], individual property in land was known; it descended in the male line. Among the Turribul there was individual property in _bunya-bunya_ trees; these too devolved from father to son[34].

On the other hand on the Bloomfield property in zamia nut grounds has vested in women and descends from mother to daughter[35]; but in this remarkable variant we see, of course, not the influence of the mother's kin, but female influence or rather the right of females to the produce of their labour. In respect of other property, inheritance in North Queensland is in the male line, for it descends to blood brothers and remains in the same exogamous group from generation to generation.

This brings us to the question of the part played by the local group in causing the change from female to male descent. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances, with female descent, the local group is made up of persons of different phratries and totems; in any case, just as the phratry and totem of the members of the individual family change from generation to generation, the complexion of the local group is liable to be completely changed; though in practice the changes in one direction are no doubt counterbalanced by changes in the other, so that the net result may be nil, when the original differences were small. But we cannot suppose that the group was often evenly balanced; and a change in the rule of descent would in that case have important results for the local group and in any case for the individual family.

The importance of the difference in the const.i.tution of the local group under descent in the male line is seen when we reflect that in the normal tribe the totem kin is practically the unit for many purposes.

If, for example, an emu man has killed, let us say, an iguana man, it is the duty of the iguana men to avenge the death of their kinsman. Their vengeance need not, however, fall on the original perpetrator of the deed; according to the rules of savage justice all the emu men are equally responsible with the culprit; consequently it suffices to kill the first emu person whom they can find. Conversely, those to whom an emu man looks for defence, when he is attacked, or a.s.sistance, when he wishes to abduct a wife or anything of that sort, are his fellow emu men. It is therefore clear that the rule of male descent gives far greater security to the members of a local group; for they are surrounded by kinsmen. Under the rule of female descent, on the other hand, they probably have some kinsmen in the same group but equally a considerable number of members of other totem kins.

Self-interest therefore, no less than the natural sympathy between fathers and children, as well as between members of the same group (quite apart from forays and fighting), must have tended to bring about a change in the laws of descent.

The late Major J.W. Powell has already described the transition from matria potestas to patria potestas among the Pueblo peoples. He put it down to economic conditions, which lead the groups to scatter, each under the heads.h.i.+p of a male, who is also the husband; this naturally resulted in a weakening of the influence of the mother's brother. It is, however, less clear that it would bring about the decay of the power of the mother herself, which in Australian tribes, at any rate, seems to be independent of the support she obtains from her male relatives.

In Australia, as we have seen, the change from matria to patria potestas had but little influence in bringing about a change in the rule of descent. Here, too, the change in the rule of descent may be put down in the main to economic causes also in a broad sense. Dumping was not in those days a question of practical politics; the problem was to prevent the neighbours from pursuing the policy of the free and open port. The necessity of protecting tribal and group property in land and game would naturally tend to bind men closer and closer, in proportion as the pressure from without became greater. It is perhaps hardly accidental that the main area of male descent is that which has also developed the Intichiuma ceremonies.

If Prof. Gregory's view[36] that the occupation of Victoria by the natives dates back no more than 300 years is correct, we may perhaps see in the migration one cause of the rise of patriliny. Anything which tended to shake the influence of the mother's kin would increase the father's power; and the need of protecting newly established groups from the incursions of their neighbours would be more urgent than in older districts. As we have seen, the first mentioned cause has elsewhere had little direct effect; but it may well have played a larger part under the novel conditions of migration and occupation of fresh territory.

In South Queensland the fractionation of tribes seems to have gone further than elsewhere, unless we suppose that we have here an area, where, as in California, pressure from without has crowded together the remnants of many tribes. Although it is not obvious how the multiplication of distinct tribes has favoured patrilineal descent, we may, at any rate, say that the conditions in the area are exceptional; possibly it was more fruitful than the greater part of the continent; if so personal property in the shape of trees, etc., which we have already seen in existence in this area, would play a more important _role_ here, and may well have determined the transition to patrilineal descent.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] _Fortn. Rev._ Sept. 1905, cf. van Gennep, _Mythes et Legendes_.

[11] It cannot be said that the ordinary theory of the development of kins.h.i.+p in the female line is satisfactory. The consanguine relation of mother and child does not appear to be a complete answer to the question why kins.h.i.+p--an entirely different thing--was reckoned through the mother; the alleged uncertainty of fatherhood is in the first place closely connected with an unproven stage of promiscuity and consequently hardly a _vera causa_, until further evidence of such a stage has been produced; and again among the Arunta, it is rather potestas than physical fatherhood which, on their theory, determines the kins.h.i.+p of the child so far as the cla.s.s is concerned. For the primitive group therefore we cannot a.s.sert any predominant interest of the mother in the children nor yet admit that it would necessarily be important if it were shown to exist.

[12] _Annee Sociologique_ V, 104 sq.; VIII, 132 sq.; Tylor in _J.A.I._ XVIII, 245-272.

[13] Howitt, pp. 220, 225, 234, 248; cf. 159, 269.

[14] _ib._ p. 234.

[15] P. 30 _infra_.

[16] _Ethnological Studies_, p. 141.

[17] Howitt, pp. 193, 224, 227, 236.

[18] _ib._ p. 248, cf. 227.

[19] Howitt, pp. 195, 221, 177, 217.

[20] _ib._ pp. 210, 227, 252, 216, 177, 260.

[21] _ib._ p. 243.

[22] _ib._ p. 219.

[23] _ib._ pp. 232, 257, 236.

[24] _Nor. Tr._ p. 603.

[25] _ib._ pp. 77 n., 114.

[26] Howitt, pp. 263, 255, 198, 195.

[27] Howitt, p. 298.

[28] _ib._ pp. 306, 308 sq.

[29] _Nor. Tr._ p. 23.

[30] Howitt, p. 303.

[31] _ib._ p. 302.

[32] _Nor. Tr._ p. 524.

[33] _Reisen._ IV, 347.

[34] _Petrie's Reminiscences_, p. 117.

[35] _N.Q. Ethn. Bull._ VIII.

[36] _Proc. R.S. Vict._ XVII, 120.

CHAPTER III.

DEFINITIONS AND HISTORY.

Definitions: tribe, sub-tribe, local group, phratry, cla.s.s, totem kin.