AY Honors/Aboriginal Lore/Answer Key

Australian Aboriginal kinship refers to the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Aboriginal culture. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Australia.

The main element is the division of clans within the same language group into skin groups, or moieties. The simplest system involves division into two skin groups. There can be four divisions, while more complex systems are divided into eight groups.

The system dicates who may marry whom – it is always taboo to marry into your own skin group – creating strong incest avoidance laws and strong bonds across clans through exogamous relations. It is often determined at birth who will marry whom. This can prove invaluable during drought or lack of resources, having cousins and skin sisters and brothers in other clans. It also creates obligations to care for those people in their time of need.

Each skin group has certain totems associated with it. Some Aboriginal groups, such as the Yolngu, include plants, animals and all aspects of the environment, as part of their respective skin groups.

A person of the same skin group is called "brother" or "sister". People may also be called "father" or "mother" if they are of their parents' respective skin groups.

Non-Aboriginal people are often confounded to hear Aborigines refer to their great-grandmother as their daughter, or their great-grandchild their mother. They are referring, in fact, to the fact that those relatives are in the same skin groups.

Below are a few examples of different kinship systems from across Australia:

Systems with two skin groups

Pitjantjatjara

The Pitjantjatjara of northern South Australia have two moiety groups:

ngana nt arka (lit. we-bone) 'our side'

tjanamilytjan (lit. they flesh) 'their side'

However, they do not use skin names.

Yolŋu

For the Yolŋu of north-east Arnhem Land, life is divided into two skin groups: Dhuwa and Yirritja. Each of these is represented by people of a number of different groups, each with their own lands, languages and philosophies:

Skin name	Clan groups
Yirritja	Gumatj, Gupapuyngu, Wangurri, Ritharrngu, Mangalili, Munyuku, Madarrpa, Warramiri, Dhalwangu, Liyalanmirri.
Dhuwa	Rirratjingu, Galpu, Djambarrpuyngu, Golumala, Marrakulu, Marrangu, Djapu, Datiwuy, Ngaymil, Djarrwark.

A Yirritja person must always marry a Dhuwa person and vice versa. If a man or woman is Dhuwa, their mother will be Yirritja.

Kinship relations are also mapped onto the lands owned by the Yolngu through their hereditary estates – so everything is either Yirritja or Dhuwa – every fish, stone, river, etc, belongs to one or the other moiety.

Systems with eight skin groups

Pintupi

The Pintupi of the Western Desert have a complex kinship system, made more so by distinct prefixes for male and female skin names; "Tj" for males, "N" for females:

Gender	Skin name	Can only mary	Children will be
Male	Tjapaltjarri
Female	Napaltjarri
Male	Tjapangati	Nampitjinpa
Female	Napangati	Tjampitjinpa	Tjangala, Nangala
Male	Tjakamarra
Female	Nakamarra
Male	Tjampitjinpa	Napangati	Tjangala, Nangala
Female	Nampitjinpa	Tjapangati
Male	Tjapanangka
Female	Napanangka
Male	Tjungurrayi
Female	Nungurrayi
Male	Tjupurrula
Female	Napurrula
Male	Tjangala
Female	Nangala

Lardiil

The Lardiil of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria also have eight skin groups, shown here with some of their totems:

Male skin group	Totems	Can only mary female skin group	Children will be
Ngarrijbalangi	Rainbird, shooting star, egret	Burrarangi	Bangariny
Bangariny	Brown hark, turtle	Yakimarr	Ngarrijbalangi
Buranyi	Crane, salt water, sleeping turtle	Kangal
Balyarriny	Black tiger shark, sea turtle	Kamarrangi
Burrarangi	Lightning, rough sea, black dingo	Ngarrijbalangi
Yakimarr	Seagull, barramundi, grey shark	Bangariny
Kangal	Barramundi, grey shark	Buranyi
Kamarrangi	Rock, pelican, brolga, red dingo	Balyarriny

Each Lardiil person belongs to one of these groups. Their paternal grandfather's skin group determines their own; so a Balyarriny man or woman will have a Balyarriny grandfather. A Ngarrijbalangi person can only marry a Burrarangi, a Bangariny a Yakimarr, a Buranyi a Kangal and a Balyarriny a Kamarrangi, and vice versa for each.

Once a person's skin group is known, their relationship to any other Lardiil 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

References

Binnion, Joan (1979) The Lardil People of Mornington Island (Student Handbook), Aboriginal Community College, Port Adelaide.
Hansen, Kenneth C. and Lesley E. Hansen, 1979, Pintupi/Luritja kinship, Alice Springs, NT, Institute for Aboriginal Development.
Ausanthrop kinship tutorial
Ausanthrop
Central Land Council