Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia. Northcote Whitridge Thomas
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Northcote Whitridge Thomas
Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664585196
Table of Contents
TABLE I a: XII. CLASS NAMES OF EIGHT-CLASS TRIBES.
INDEX OF PHRATRY, BLOOD, AND CLASS NAMES.
PREFACE.
It is becoming an axiom in anthropology that what is needed is not discursive treatment of large subjects but the minute discussion of special themes, not a ranging at large over the peoples of the earth past and present, but a detailed examination of limited areas. This work I am undertaking for Australia, and in the present volume I deal briefly with some of the aspects of Australian kinship organisations, in the hope that a survey of our present knowledge may stimulate further research on the spot and help to throw more light on many difficult problems of primitive sociology.
We have still much to learn of the relations of the central tribes and their organisations to the less elaborately studied Anula and Mara. I have therefore passed over the questions discussed by Dr. Durkheim. We have still more to learn as to the descent of the totem, the relation of totem-kin, class and phratry, and the like; totemism is therefore treated only incidentally in the present work, and lack of knowledge compels me to pass over many other interesting questions.
The present volume owes much to Mr. Andrew Lang. He has read twice over both my typescript MS, and my proofs; in the detection of ambiguities and the removal of obscurities he has rendered my readers a greater service than any bald statement will convey; for his aid in the matter of terminology, for his criticisms of ideas already put forward and for his many pregnant suggestions, but inadequately worked out in the present volume. I am under the deepest obligations to him; and no mere formal expression of thanks will meet the case. I have been more than fortunate in securing aid from Mr. Lang in a subject which he has made his own.
I do not for a moment suppose that the information here collected is exhaustive. If any one should be in a position to supplement or correct my facts or to enlighten me in any way as to the ideas and customs of the blacks I shall be obliged if he will tell me all he knows about them and their ways. Letters may be addressed to me c/o the Anthropological Institute, 3 Hanover Sq., W.
NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS.
Buntingford,
Sept. 11th, 1906.
MAPS.
| PAGE | |||
| I. | Rule of Descent | 40 | |
| II. | Class Organisations | to follow | 40 |
| III. | Phratry Organisations | " | 40 |
TABLE.
| Class Names of Eight-Class Tribes. | between pp. 46 and 47 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY.