Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T05:14:14.257Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CHAPTER IV - PROPERTY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

Get access

Summary

The territory belonging to a tribe is divided among its members. Each family has the exclusive right by inheritance to a part of the tribal lands, which is named after its owner; and his family and every child born on it must be named after something on the property. When the boundaries with neighbours meet at lakes or swamps celebrated for game, well-defined portions of these are marked out and any poaching or trespassing is severely punished. No individual of any neighbouring tribe or family can hunt or walk over the property of another without permission from the head of the family owning the land. A stranger found trespassing can legally be put to death.

When the father of a family dies, his landed property is divided equally among his widow and his children of both sexes. Should a child of another family have been born on the estate, it is looked upon as one of the family, and it has an equal right with them to a share of the land, if it has attained the age of six months at the death of the proprietor. This adopted child is called a ‘woork’, and calls the owner of the property by the same name. Should a family die out without leaving ‘flesh relatives’ of any degree, the chief divides the land among the contiguous families after the lapse of one year from the death of the last survivor. During that period the name of the property, being the same as the name of its last owner, is never mentioned, but is called ‘Yaamp yaamp’ in the Ohaap wuurong and the other two languages.

Type
Chapter
Information
Australian Aborigines
The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia
, pp. 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1881

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • PROPERTY
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • PROPERTY
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • PROPERTY
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.007
Available formats
×