Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia Part 10

Possibly the Wiradjeri Wombee is the Kombinegherry Wombo; it is at any rate significant that the name is found in the portion of the tribe nearest the Kombinegherry.

We have seen that the Arunta and their north-western neighbours have a four-cla.s.s system, the component names of which are found with little variation over a range of nearly 25 of longitude. In the forms Kiemarra, Palyeri, Burong, and Baniker, the cla.s.s names in vogue among the southern Arunta meet us again near the North-West Cape, thus covering a larger area than even the widespread Koorgila-Bunburi cla.s.s names of Queensland, and forming a striking contrast to the narrow limits of the majority of the four-cla.s.s system. This peculiarity is reproduced in the compact area of the central eight-cla.s.s tribes, north and north-east of the Koomara four-cla.s.s area, though with much greater variations in the names. Bulthara however in the form Palyeri is found in more or less disguised shapes in the whole of the eighteen tribes, whose cla.s.s names are shown in Table I a; Koomara is found in shapes which are on the whole harder to recognise, and Panunga and Purula in two or three cases, either replaced by another word or so changed as to be unrecognisable. Of the supplementary names belonging to the eight-cla.s.s Arunta, Uknaria, Ungalla, Appungerta, Umb.i.t.c.hana, Ungalla is found in the whole of the tribes under consideration, and Appungerta undergoes on the whole but little change; Uknaria is practically not found outside the Arunta area, and Umb.i.t.c.hana is in six cases replaced by Yacomary, which seems to be a form of Koomara (to this point we recur later).

Although this suggests that the names were in the first case taken from the Arunta a comparison of them shows that it is not among this tribe that the greatest number of forms common to the whole group and the greatest general resemblance of the names is to be found, as is shown by the comparative tables below. Judged by the standard of resemblance the Oolawunga of the north-west, on the Victoria River, have preserved the names nearest their original forms. Judged by the standard of least deviation from the common stock of names and basing the comparison, not on resemblances but on differences, the Koorangie of the upper waters of the same river take the first place, with the Oolawunga not far behind.

In each case the Inchalachee, the most easterly of the group, take the last place, followed in the table of resemblances by the Walpari and the Worgaia; and in the table of differences by the Worgaia and, though at a considerable distance, the Mayoo and the Walpari.

_Figure of Resemblance_[113].

Oolawunga 55 Bingongina 54 Umbaia 51 Koorangie 50 Yookala, Binbinga 48 Gnanji 47 Meening 43 Warramunga, Yungmunni 41 Arunta, Mayoo 40 Kaitish, Yungarella, Tjingilli 39 Worgaia 37 Walpari 31 Inchalachee 28

_Figure of Difference_[114].

Koorangie 31 Oolawunga 33 Umbaia 35 Bingongina 37 Yungmunni 42 Gnanji, Tjingilli 44 Warramunga 45 Arunta 46 Binbinga 49 Yookala 50 Meening 52 Kaitish 54 Yungarella, Walpari 56 Mayoo 57 Worgaia 69 Inchalachee 84

Attention has already been drawn to the resemblance between the Arunta four-cla.s.s names and the names of the eight-cla.s.s group. It is clearly of high importance to determine whether the resemblance is on the whole between the names of the western group and the eight-cla.s.s names, or whether the latter can more readily be derived from those of the Arunta.

In the latter case it is obvious that the position of the Oolawunga and Koorangie in the comparative tables is due, not to their having been the tribes from which all the others derived their names, but rather to movements of population subsequent to the adoption of the cla.s.s names.

If on the other hand it appears that the names came in the first instance from the more western portion of the Koomara group, we have some grounds for supposing that the names and the system reached the eight-cla.s.s area from the west and not from the south.

We have already seen that in the case of Palyeri-Bulthara all the evidence points to the name having come from the west. In the case of Panunga the evidence is weaker, certain of the forms being derivable from either Baniker or Panunga, but with the exception of the Warramunga, and possibly the Tjingili, there are no tribes of whom we can definitely say that they took the name from the Arunta, whereas there are at least four cases where the resemblance is distinctly with the western cla.s.s names, and several more in which it can more readily be derived from them. The resemblance between Koomarra and Kiemarra or Kiamba is already considerable, and makes it difficult to estimate the probabilities in most cases; the problem is complicated by the question of prefixes, which will come up for discussion later, and on the whole there appears to be no certain solution of the problem, though the Mayoo seem to have taken over and varied the western form. In the case of Purula-Burong there appear to be indeterminate cases; six seem to tell in favour of a southern origin; three suggest a western origin; and one word Chupil (f. Namilpa) seems to be from a different root.

The problem is further complicated by the anomalous cla.s.s name Yakomari, to which allusion has already been made. As will be seen later, _cha_ or _ja_ seem to be prefixes, and if that is so we can hardly avoid the conclusion that Yakomari is Koomara or Kiemara. But in the table it takes the place of Umb.i.t.c.hana, with which it is not even remotely connected philologically; Jamara and its various forms take the place in the table occupied by Koomara among the Arunta when Yakomari holds the eighth place as well as in other cases. If therefore _ku_, _ja_, and _ya_ are simply prefixes, as seems to be the case, we have this cla.s.s name duplicated among five of the tribe--the Umbaia, Yookala, Binbinga, Worgaia, Yangarella, and Inchalachee, of which one comes near the top, and two fairly high in the comparative table. It is however worthy of notice that these six tribes form the eastern group, and are consequently precisely those among which we should, on the hypothesis that the cla.s.s names originated in the western portion of the area, expect to find the greatest amount of variation and the most numerous anomalies. Dividing the six tribes into two groups, western and eastern, each of three tribes, we find that the c.u.mulative resemblance of the western group to the Arunta is 132, to the Oolawunga 186; the same figures for the eastern group, more remote from the Oolawunga, but practically equidistant with the western group from the Arunta, are 91 and 112. This again seems to lend support to the hypothesis of a western origin. It is perhaps simplest to suppose that the majority of the names came from the west; but that Yakomari, travelling upwards from the south-west, displaced the more usual eighth cla.s.s name, or perhaps we should say, replaced it, when the eight-cla.s.s system was adopted, for a name is not likely to have gone out of use when it had once been applied as a designation.

Attention has been called in connection with the phratries to the suffixes such as _um_, _itch_, _aku_[115], etc. Their precise meaning is usually uncertain. An attentive consideration of the cla.s.s names seems to show that similar suffixes have been used in forming them. If we compare Panunga and Baniker, it seems a fair conclusion that the _ban_ or _pan_ is compounded with _iker_ (_aku_) or _unga_, for among the Yookala, the nearest neighbours of the Bingongina, who have it as a phratriac suffix, the _-agoo_ of the cla.s.s names is unmistakeably independent of the root word, whatever that may be. In addition to _unga_ we find _inginja_, _angie_, _inja_, _itch_ (recalling the _itji_ of the phratries), _itchana_, and the form _anjegoo_ which seems to have a double suffix. _Ara_, _yeri_, _aree_, _um_, _ana_, _ula_ (as we see by comparing Purula with Burong), _ta_, and the possibly double form _tjuka_, seem to be further examples.

The feminine forms Nalyirri for Thalirri (=Palyeri), Nala for Chula, Ninum for Tjinum, Nana for Tjana or Thama, etc. suggest that prefixes are also to be distinguished. They seem to be _choo_, _joo_, _ja_, _ya_, _n-_, _yun_, _u-_, _ku_, _pu_, _bu_, _nu_, etc. We are however on very uncertain ground here, for the feminine forms may be deliberate creations. Allowance has to be made too for the personal equation of the observer, which is by no means inconsiderable. Possibly this factor, together with ordinary laws of phonetic change, the most elementary principles of which have yet to be established for the Australian languages, will suffice to account for the variations in the names as recorded. Otherwise the words are in most cases reduced to monosyllabic roots from which it seems hopeless to attempt to extract a meaning.

These questions of suffixes and prefixes are intimately connected with the very difficult problem of the origin of the cla.s.ses. The languages of these tribes are at present, if not distinct linguistic stocks, at any rate very far from being mere dialectical variations of a common tongue, for the members of two tribes appear to be mutually unintelligible, unless, contrary to the custom of the American Indians, they are bilingual. But if each tribe added a suffix, and thus adopted into their own language words which, from the general agreement among the cla.s.s names of this group, seem to have come to them from outside, it is a reasonable hypothesis that the word which they adopted had some meaning for them. Of course we may suppose that the cla.s.s names were all adopted in the far off time when all spoke a common language. But apart from the difficulty that this presupposes the existence of an eight-cla.s.s system at that early period, it is clear from the Queensland evidence that cla.s.s names have been handed on from tribe to tribe, and it is reasonable to suppose this to have been the case with the northern tribes. This conclusion is borne out by the forms of the suffixes, which do not appear to have been developed from one root determinative, as must have been the case if we suppose that the names originated when the language spoken by these tribes was undifferentiated; and by the facts as to the apparent duplication of Koomara, to which allusion has already been made.

The important point about the cla.s.s, as distinguished from the phratry systems, is the great extent covered by the former. The north-west area of male descent is virtually one from the point of view of cla.s.s names; two other areas are very large, six are of medium size, three are small, and the remaining one is probably medium.

Although the question of the meaning of the cla.s.s names is closely bound up with that of their origin, the problem is closely bound up with some of the points discussed in this chapter. The meaning of the eight-cla.s.s names is connected with the area of origin of the system, and linguistic questions, such as those relating to suffixes, come in. We may therefore briefly discuss at this point the meaning of the cla.s.s names.

On the whole it may be said that we know the meaning of the cla.s.s names only in exceptional cases. The Kiabara, Kamilaroi, Annan River, Kuinmurbura, Narrang-ga, and two of the West Australian names can be translated (see Table I). But with these exceptions we have no certain knowledge of the meaning of the single cla.s.s names.

Conjectures are of comparatively little value. For in the first place the number of words recorded from any given tribe is as a rule very small, and little or no indication of the p.r.o.nunciation is given even in the latest works on Australian ethnography. The variations, evidently purely arbitrary and due to the want of training in phonetics, are frequently very considerable. And finally the area over which the names prevail is sufficiently great to give us our choice from half a dozen or more different tribal languages, which combined with the variation in the form of the words, adds very considerably to the probability that there will be found somewhere within the area a word or words bearing a deceptively close resemblance to the cla.s.s names. How far this is the case may be made clear by one or two instances of chance resemblances between animal names (it seems on the whole probable that if the names are translateable they will turn out to be animal names) in the same or neighbouring tribes. The meaning of Arunta seems to be white c.o.c.katoo[116], but we also find a word almost indistinguishable from it in sound--eranta--with the meaning of pelican[117]. Kulbara means emu and koolbirra kangaroo[118]. Malu (=kangaroo), mala (=mouse), and male (=swan) are found in tribes of West Australia, though not of tribes living in immediate proximity one to another[119]. But perhaps the best example is that of Derroein, which, as we have seen, means kangaroo. In addition to durween (young male kangaroo) we find at no great distance the words dirrawong (=iguana) and deerooyn (=whip snake), either of which bears a sufficiently close resemblance to the cla.s.s name to be accepted as a translation for it in the absence of other compet.i.tors[120].

With these facts in mind such suggestions as an attentive study of vocabularies has disclosed are naturally put forward with a full sense of their uncertainty, they are of a purely tentative nature.

For the Koobaroo (var. Obur) of the Goorgilla set I find in the same group the h.o.m.ophone _obur_ (gidea tree), which is also a totem of the group of tribes in question[121]. The Wotero of Halifax Bay suggests Wutheru, for which I am unable to find a meaning, unless it be emu, as given by one observer, who however on another occasion gave a different translation. Korkoro in the same set may be the same as korkoren (opossum) of a tribe some 150 miles away[122]. The muri[123] and kubbi of the Kamilaroi and Turribul (?) mean kangaroo and opossum in the latter language, and ibbai means Eaglehawk in Wiraidhuri[124]. The Kamilaroi bundar (=kangaroo) may give us a clue to the meaning of the Dippil Bundar[125]; the Kiabara Bulcoin has a h.o.m.ophone in the Peechera tribe, where it means kangaroo; on the Hastings River it means red wallaby. Balcun however means native bear according to Mathew[126].

If we turn to the eight-cla.s.s tribes the results are hardly more striking. The Dieri Pultara, Palyara and Upala[127], are h.o.m.ophones of the cla.s.s names which we have seen as alternative forms; but this very fact makes it certain, or nearly so, that one of the h.o.m.ophones is due to chance coincidence. Bearing in mind that the Arunta alone have the form Bulthara, we may perhaps see in the change undergone by the word in their language the result of attraction, though it must be confessed that the hypothesis is far-fetched in the case of a non-written language. On the other hand it tells against the Palyeri=Palyara equation that the Arunta, who are by far the nearest to the Dieri, use the form Bulthara. The equation Kanunka=Panunga is not backed by any evidence that the p-k change is admissible. Finally three of the four words mentioned seem to be compounded with a suffix; and if this is so it is clearly useless to equate them with words in which this suffix is a component part.

One cla.s.s name only, Ungilla, is found in the Arunta area itself (and far beyond it, as far as the Gulf of Carpentaria) with the meaning crow[128]. If we may regard the _j_ and _k_ of the forms jungalla, kungalla, as a prefix, the equation seems justified; otherwise it seems an insuperable difficulty that not the original form of the cla.s.s name, but the derivative and shortened form is the one to which the equation applies. Our very defective knowledge of the languages of the eight-cla.s.s tribes makes it possible that when we know more of them other root words may be discovered. At present it can only be said that in very few instances have we either in the four-cla.s.s or the eight-cla.s.s areas any warrant for saying that we know the meaning of the cla.s.s names, much less that we know them to be derived from the names of animals.

One piece of evidence on the subject we need mention only to reject. The Rev. H. Kempe, of the Lutheran Mission among the southern Arunta, has on two occasions stated that the cla.s.ses in signalling to each other use as their signs the gestures employed to designate animals[129]. On one occasion however he a.s.signs to the Bunanka cla.s.s the eaglehawk gesture, on another the lizard gesture; the remaining three, which he added only on the second occasion, were ant, wallaby and eaglehawk. It may be noted that the eaglehawk sign is attributed by him to the two cla.s.ses which would form the main part of the population of a local group; in the second place all four animals are among the totems of the tribe; it seems therefore probable that Mr Kempe has merely confused the sign made to a man of the given kin with a sign which he supposed to be made to a man of a certain cla.s.s. If he paid little attention to the subject, and especially if on the second occasion he gained his information at a large tribal meeting, the large number of totems would render it improbable that conflicting evidence would lead him to discover his mistake. If he pursued his enquiries far enough he might, it is true, get more than one sign for a given cla.s.s; but if he contented himself with asking four men, one of each cla.s.s, the probability would be that he would get four separate gestures. In any case we have no warrant for arguing that the gesture in any way translates the cla.s.s name.

FOOTNOTES:

[111] In practice they are eight-cla.s.s.

[112] The numbers refer to those used in chapter IV.

[113] These are merely rough percentages based on arbitrary values for partial resemblances.

[114] This table shows what percentage of names is completely different; partial differences are not allowed for.

[115] Possibly a prefix also; cf. _Koocheebinga_, _Koorabunna_ and their sister names.

[116] Curr, vocab. no. 37.

[117] ib. no. 39. Spencer and Gillen give "loud voiced" as the meaning.

[118] ib. nos. 34, 40, 49 _a_, 104.

[119] Moore, _Vocab._; Mathew, p. 226.

[120] Mathew, p. 232; Curr, nos. 164, 170, 178.

[121] ib. no. 143.

[122] ib. no. 110.

[123] Elsewhere muri means red kangaroo.

[124] ib. nos. 168, 181, 190; Mathew, _Eaglehawk_, p. 227.

[125] Curr, no. 181.

[126] Mathew, _Eaglehawk_, p. 100; Curr, no. 177.

[127] ib. no. 55.

[128] Roth, _Studies_, p. 50; Curr, nos. 37, 38, 39.

[129] _Halle Verein fur Erdkunde_, 1883, p. 52; _Aust. a.s.s. Adv. Sci._ II, 640.

CHAPTER VIII.

THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF CLa.s.sES.

Effect of cla.s.ses. Dr Durkheim's Theory of Origin. Origin in grouping of totems. Dr Durkheim on origin of eight cla.s.ses. Herr Cunow's theory of cla.s.ses.

In dealing with the origin of the cla.s.ses it is important to bear in mind that they are undoubtedly later than the phratries. This is clear, not only from the considerations urged on p. 71, but also from the fact that the areas covered by the same cla.s.ses are in the three most important cases immensely larger than any covered by a phratriac system.

We may therefore dismiss at the outset Herr Cunow's theory, which makes the cla.s.ses the original form of organisation.