Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX TO ABBREVIATIONS
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
- CHAPTER II DESCENT
- CHAPTER III DEFINITIONS AND HISTORY
- CHAPTER IV TABLES OF CLASSES, PHRATRIES, ETC.
- CHAPTER V PHRATRY NAMES
- CHAPTER VI ORIGIN OF PHRATRIES
- CHAPTER VII CLASS NAMES
- CHAPTER VIII THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF CLASSES
- CHAPTER IX KINSHIP TERMS
- CHAPTER X TYPES OF SEXUAL UNIONS
- CHAPTER XI GROUP MARRIAGE AND MORGAN'S THEORIES
- CHAPTER XII GROUP MARRIAGE AND THE TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
- CHAPTER XIII PIRRAURU
- CHAPTER XIV TEMPORARY UNIONS
- APPENDIX: ANOMALOUS MARRIAGES
- INDEX OF PHRATRY, BLOOD, AND CLASS NAMES
- INDEX OF SUBJECTS
- Plate section
CHAPTER VII - CLASS NAMES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX TO ABBREVIATIONS
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
- CHAPTER II DESCENT
- CHAPTER III DEFINITIONS AND HISTORY
- CHAPTER IV TABLES OF CLASSES, PHRATRIES, ETC.
- CHAPTER V PHRATRY NAMES
- CHAPTER VI ORIGIN OF PHRATRIES
- CHAPTER VII CLASS NAMES
- CHAPTER VIII THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF CLASSES
- CHAPTER IX KINSHIP TERMS
- CHAPTER X TYPES OF SEXUAL UNIONS
- CHAPTER XI GROUP MARRIAGE AND MORGAN'S THEORIES
- CHAPTER XII GROUP MARRIAGE AND THE TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
- CHAPTER XIII PIRRAURU
- CHAPTER XIV TEMPORARY UNIONS
- APPENDIX: ANOMALOUS MARRIAGES
- INDEX OF PHRATRY, BLOOD, AND CLASS NAMES
- INDEX OF SUBJECTS
- Plate section
Summary
The priority of phratries over classes is commonly admitted and it is unnecessary to argue the question at length. The main grounds for the assumption are: (1) that it is a priori probable that the fourfold division succeeded the twofold division, exactly as the eightfold division has succeeded, and apparently is still gaining ground, at the expense of the fourclass system. (2) Over a considerable and compact area phratries alone are found without a trace of named classes, if we except the anomalous organisation recorded by Dawson in S. W. Victoria. On the other hand, while we find certain tribes among whom no phratry names have yet been discovered, it is inherently probable that this is due to their having been forgotten and not to their never having existed. It is possible that the encroachments of an alien class system have in some cases helped on the extinction of the phratry names. (3) We find classes without phratry names, not in a compact group, but scattered up and down more or less at random, suggesting that chance and not law has been at work to produce this result. (4) Where class names are found without corresponding phratry names, they are invariably arranged in what may be termed anonymous phratries; that is to say, in pairs or fours, so that the member of one class is under normal circumstances not at liberty to select a wife at will from the other three, but is usually limited to one of the other classes.
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- Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia , pp. 71 - 85Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1906