CHAPTER VMODE OF LIVINGIThe three points hitherto discussed refer more exclusively to the relationship between husband and wife, and do not involve that between parents and children. They bear more on marriage than on the family. But, as so often repeated, the full description of marriage can be made only in connection with, and on the basis of, a knowledge of the family life in its larger sense. We proceed now to this more general discussion, and in order to carry it out on broad foundations it will be well in the first place to consider the family unit[353]in connection with the territorial and tribal organization; that is to consider the mode of living of the family in connection with the higher territorial and tribal units. It has been repeatedly said that each social unit should be discussed in connection with the general structure of society and the general conditions of life in a given area. When theoretically stated this appears a commonplace; in practice it is seldom carried out by ethnologists.That the facts of aggregation are of the highest importance in sociology appears also to be quite clear.[354]Thesefacts have been described by Mr. Wheeler for the Australian aboriginal society, and we shall in several places refer to his work. It will serve us as a basis in the following discussion, which nevertheless does not appear superfluous as it is connected more exclusively with the problem of family. In this connection the main question to be asked is: Do the natives usually live scattered, in single families, or in larger groups? All the features of family life—the husband's authority, the sexual marital relation, the economics of the household, the relation of children to parents—would appear in a different light, and our ideas thereon might in many respects be modified according to the answer we obtained to the above question. This point (i. e.the mode of living) would also be decisive in the problem of group relationship: if the natives live normally in single families, which assemble only occasionally, then the individuality of the family relationship is placed beyond any doubt. And if there are, besides, any group relations, they must radically and absolutely differ from the individual one; for the latter, and it only, is constituted by the most powerfully binding element—continuous daily contact. If, however, the aborigines live in more or less numerous groups, our question is still open, and we have to inquire: Do the families, which (permanently or temporarily) form one body, live in a state of social communism and promiscuity? Or arethey more or less isolated from each other? That will form the second part of our task.[355]Let us now gather information about the first point,i. e.the size of the groups in which the natives live. Our statements are at first sight contradictory on this point; but this is largely due to the total lack of fixed terminology. It will be well to settle the latter beforehand and determine more exactly what we are to look for in the statements. For that purpose we must forestall the results of our research and broadly outline the state of things; it will give us a guiding thread through the statements. Roughly speaking, in Australia the tribe as a social unit is characterized by name, common speech, custom and territory.[356]It is divided (and sometimes subdivided again) into smaller groups; these consist of individuals closely related, possess a sort of government, and are connected with a portion of the tribal territory which they practically use in common.[357]For the social division of the tribes is connected with and complicated by a parallel territorial partition. And there is always a certain territory allotted to the exclusive possession of a certain group. The tribe (as defined above) cannot be considered as proprietor[358]of the territory, for its differentdivisions may not encroach upon each other's grounds. We shall call (by way of definition) aLocal Group, such a division of the tribe as possesses the exclusive right to use a given territory and to dwell within its limits. In the following statements we will give a series of examples of these local units, and the different forms they assume in different tribes. It will be possible, too, to give a more precise meaning to the word "proprietorship"; and to see in what sense land may be possessed or claimed by the Australian blacks. The authors seldom try to give to these terms any clear meaning, or to discern all the existing differences; but these will be evident enough from the facts contained in the statements. The problem of territorial division is only the basis for our main question, viz. the mode of living. The Local Group, which is the joint owner of its territory, is, so to say, only the upper limit of aggregation;i. e.the body of persons actually and normally living together cannot be larger than that group, for only its members are (in normal conditions) admitted to its grounds. But this Local Group may also live scattered over its district. There will be several data in our information which would rather confirm us in this supposition.Now let us review the statements, bearing in mind the exact meaning given to the words Tribe, Local Group and Family. We have agreed to call Local Group a unit owning in common a portion of country, and we are asking how big this unit is in different tribes; if it lives scattered or in a body; finally, what idea can we form of "land ownership" in Australia.Statements.—The Kurnai were divided into five exogamous "clans."[359]These were divided and subdivided several times, "each subdivision having its own tract of hunting and food ground, until the unit was a small group of kindred, frequently an old man, his sons, married or unmarried, with their respective wives and children." The author gives an instance of a family claiming a certain island and the swans' eggs laid on it, as its property,[360]and living under the authority of the oldest male in the family. "Taking such a family[361]as the tribal unit of the Kurnai, it was the aggregation of such families that formed what may be called a division, inhabiting a large area, and the aggregate of the divisions formed the clan."[362]This, and the expression family as "tribal unit," shows that probably its members lived actually together. It is a pity that Howitt does not give even approximately the numbers. Again, in another place, he writes of a "natural spread of families over a tract of country," and of "elders as heads of families."[363]These "families" unite in cases of mutual need for aid and protection[364]and in cases of corroborees, initiations, etc.[365]—Here the local group was a small unit of related persons. It claimed a certain territory and exclusively used its products, and vested authority in its oldest male. These local groups usually must have lived isolated from each other, because of the exclusive right in using the given area. Howitt mentions also the beginnings of individual claims to some products (swan's eggs) being even transmitted by inheritance.[366]The statements of Howitt concerning the Murring tribes are not quite clear. "Claims to a particular tract of country arose in certain of these tribes by birth."[367]He does not say if these claims consisted in actual right to live, roam and hunt over the said tract of country. It is probable, however, that just this is the meaning, as he speaks immediately afterwards of an hereditary principle as to the grounds determining the habitation where one lives—a father pointing out the bounds of his child's country—"where his father lived, or himself wasborn and had lived."[368]If we can assume that each "family" (= local group) had its hunting-grounds so designated this would point to a far-going subdivision of country and consequently of the tribe; we can hardly infer anything conclusive from this statement alone. But it appears clearer in the light of the following remark: "The local group has in all cases been perpetuated in the same place from father to son by occupation, I may almost say by inheritance, of the hunting-grounds."[369]It seems, therefore, that generally in the tribes studied by Howitt, the local group (he calls it the "family," speaking of the Kurnai) was a very well-defined unit. And that, in the tribes in question the people who inherit a certain territory from father to son are just members of the local group. Its rights to the hunting-grounds were based on some—perhaps magic or religious—ideas of heredity.An analogous state of things is reported to have obtained among the Wurunjerri (Victoria): "The right to hunt and to procure food in any particular tract of the country belonged to the group of people born there, and could not be infringed by others without permission."[370]In the territory of the same tribe there was a stone-quarry, the material of which was very valuable to the natives. The quarry was the property of a group of people living on the spot; the head of this group had special rights in connection with it. "It was Billi-billeri, the head of the family, whose country included the quarry, who lived on it, and took care of it for the whole of the Wurunjerri community."[371]This statement appears to me very important, as it shows how rights of possession might belong to a local group and centre in the headman of this group. This statement suffices to reconcile the apparent contradiction between individual claims to a country and group claims.The local groups amongst the Bangerang, who lived at the junction of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers, seem to have been more numerous, owing, perhaps, to the easiness of food supply on the banks of two fishy rivers.[372]The tribe was divided in two exogamous moieties,[373]and the land "was parcelled out between these two sub-tribes."[374]Each respectively lived in a body, although moving sometimes from place to place. Curr speaks of their head-quarters in places abounding with fish.[375]One of the sections numbered about 150, the other somewhatless. These two "sub-tribes" or moieties constituted, therefore, rather numerous local groups. The "sub-tribes" of the kindred tribes mentioned by Curr seem also to have been numerous,[376]and to have lived each in a body,[377]so that they would be, according to our terminology, numerous local groups. Curr speaks also of individual property in land, but this seems to have had only a purely fictitious meaning, having nothing to do with any real right.[378]Private property in other things (e. g.fishing weirs, etc.) was known.[379]Curr uses the termtribein place of ourlocal group. In his general work on Australia he gives a definition of tribe which quite agrees with what we called local group.[380]"By the word tribe I mean a number of men closely allied by blood, and living in the strictest alliance, offensive and defensive, who, with their wives and children, occupy, practically in common, and in exclusion of others, a tract of country...." Everybody must respect the customs of his tribe; and as no one may live apart from the tribal community, "there is no alternative between compliance with tribal custom and death."[381]"Although the lands of a tribe arenominallyparcelled out amongst its members, it is the fact that they are used in common, and for several reasons must have always been used so." First, because for mutual protection the tribesmen must have often associated. Secondly, because of the economic conditions the tribe often was compelled to feed on a given spot.[382]Angas, describing his travels in the Murray River district, tells that he met several times with native encampments; from the passage in question[383]we may infer that they were small groups. He says[384]that on the seaside (Encounter Bay), on the lakes, and on the Murray banks, where means of subsistence were fairly easy, the local groups were numerous. But this information is very loose.Amongst the tribes of the Lower Murray River "particular districts having a radius of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the property and hunting-groundsof the tribes who frequent them."[385]Eyre speaks of a further division of land amongst single individuals; it is handed down hereditarily in the male line. "A man can dispose of or barter his land to others."[386]At any rate, all members of a "tribe" (= local group) may roam over the common territory. It seems, nevertheless, to be rather a formal than actual, exclusive right.[387]The local groups may not trespass on their respective territories without permission.[388]The whole local group congregates only "if there is any particular variety more abundant than another, or procurable only in certain localities. Should this not be the case, then they are probably scattered over their district in detached groups, or separate families."[389]Here we are well informed on our principal points: the local group is the exclusive joint landowner; the individual has some claims which are not quite clearly defined, but surely do not mean exclusive economicusum fructum. They live scattered in small parties over their area. There is another passage in Eyre's book that confirms this latter point. He says that each family is independent and governed by the father; but that, "as a matter of policy, he always informs his fellows where he is going." So that "although a tribe may be dispersed all over their own district in single groups ... yet if you meet with any one family, they can at once tell you where you will find any other.... In cases of sudden danger or emergency, the scattered groups are rapidly warned or collected" by messenger or smoke signals.[390]Mitchell's expedition, when exploring the interior of South-East Australia, met a party of blacks on the banks of the Murray, whom they had seen before on the Darling a few hundred miles distant.[391]This would apparently contradict the assumption of fixed boundaries. But the general evidence shows that, in exceptional cases, and with the leave of the neighbouring tribes—especially if these were friendly—a local group or any party of natives were allowed to travel even considerable distances for purposes of warfare, barter or ceremonial gatherings.Amongst the Aborigines of Encounter Bay and Lower Murray River (the Narrinyeri) the local groups (H. E. A. Meyer calls them "tribes,"[392]or "large families" of connected people) seem to be numerous (the country abounds with fish and birds). These local groups have their head-quarters, from which their name is derived. But only in cases of greatabundance of food does the local group live and move together. Usually single families roam in parties; the sick and aged remain in the head-quarters, and suffer often from want of food. Not only in search of food, but for the sake of performing corroborees, initiations, etc., and visiting each other, do these local groups roam about the country.[393]From a passage in Taplin[394]we may infer that the local group of the Narrinyeri near Lake Alexandrina numbered about 200 natives.[395]The local groups of this tribe were, besides, exogamous, totemic, and had a regular form of government. We have not even a hint as to their mode of living; but if plentiful food supply was the chief condition of larger aggregations, then these latter would naturally have developed better in the lake country.Among the natives of Yorke's Peninsula there are local divisions; each with a certain totem and with headmen.[396]This seems analogous to the conditions among the Narrinyeri and Central tribes; but the information is not detailed enough to be considered quite reliable.The Port Lincoln tribes seem to roam about in small parties of several families.[397]This statement is not sufficiently clear; probably a number of such parties constituted a local group.We read, again, about the Port Lincoln tribes: "Each family has its distinct place, where they live together."[398]The uncertainty as to the sense in which the wordfamilyis used here makes this statement nearly useless. The same author says in another place: "It has been remarked that the population and general condition of the natives of Australia greatly depend on the nature of the locality they occupy; where the country is sterile and unproductive the natives are found to congregate in small numbers. In fertile districts they are comparatively numerous."[399]This opinion is in agreement with the fact that the population round Lake Alexandrina, where food supply was plentiful, was extremely dense.[400]An author who has made his observations on the blacks of the Murrumbidgee River (New South Wales) and Moreton Bay (Queensland) writes: Each "tribe" (= local group) occupies a definite tract of country; a trespass of its boundaries by a stranger is punished with death.[401]This commondistrict is subdivided among families of the local group. "During seasons when all the members of the tribe are not congregated together, each family hunts on its own grounds." The author quotes, also, instances where trees were marked and belonged to individuals.[402]This statement answers both our questions as to land ownership and modes of living; in both respects the "family" is the unit: it owns its area and it lives on and uses it normally in isolation from the others; proprietorship means here exclusive use. But we must bear in mind that what is called here family may as well be a small local group of closely related people, like those among the Kurnai. At any rate it certainly means that the blacks live in very small groups, perhaps in individual families, and that this scattered mode of living rests on a territorial basis. (In general the authority of G. S. Lang cannot be said to be of the best.)We read in the travels of Gerstaecker that natives carefully keep to the boundaries of their own district. So that a traveller, to be quite safe, should always change his guide when entering upon a new territory.[403]We read about the tribes of New South Wales in general: "Though they are constantly wandering about, yet they usually confine themselves to a radius of fifty or sixty miles from the place they consider their residence. If they venture beyond this, which they sometimes do with a party of whites, they always betray the greatest fear of falling in with some Myall or stranger blacks, who they say would put them to death immediately."[404]We find here again the local group owning its territory and having head-quarters; as well as the sacrosanctity of boundaries.Turnbull remarks about the New South Wales tribes that the best food supply, and consequently the largest gatherings, were possible on the sea-shore and on the banks of fishy rivers.[405]An example of family proprietorship in land is mentioned by Collins.[406]From it, it appears that this sort of proprietorship meant rather some mystic claim than any exclusive right of economic character.We are informed that among the natives of New South Wales there is a great number of small tribes, each containing from forty to fifty individuals. "Each tribe has a certain beat, or hunting-ground, frequently of not more than twenty miles indiameter, from which they never move, unless on certain occasions when they visit the territory of a neighbouring tribe for the purpose of a fight, or a ceremony. Sometimes, the tribe will wander about in parties of five or ten; at other times all the members will encamp together."[407]In substituting the wordlocal groupfortribe, we get here again a fairly good statement.In the statements of Fraser we find again the local group; he calls it "sub-tribe." It derives its name from a certain locality, owns a tract of country, which is guarded jealously against any infringement from any of the neighbouring sub-tribes.[408]This statement is illustrated by an example, and therefore appears rather trustworthy.[409]"Each tribe is divided into independent families, which acknowledge no chief, and which inhabit in common a district within certain limits, generally not exceeding above ten or twelve miles on any side." The tribes number from 100 to 300.[410]"The families belonging to a tribe meet together upon occasions of festivals at certain seasons, and also to consult upon all important occasions."[411]The first phrase is not clear: we are not told whether what he calls the tribe owns its area in common, or whether the divisions called "independent families" possess each its own district. From the context, however, we see that we must assume the latter. Three hundred people occupy in Australia usually more than a hundred square miles.Hodgkinson, speaking of the tribes between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, says that the tribes (local groups) keep each within very narrow limits. The district of each of them measures about 150 square miles; usually some ten to twelve miles of a river bank and the adjoining hinterland. "The whole body of a tribe is never united on the same spot, unless on some important occasion. They are more generally divided into small parties of eight or ten men, with their women and children, for the greater convenience of hunting, etc., and these detached companies roam over any part of the country within the prescribed limits of the main tribe to which they belong."[412]This statement agrees with the general type of information.Of the Coombangree tribe, New South Wales, it is said: "Each tribe kept its own belt of country and separated intosmall camps, and only collected on special occasions."[413]In this statement the words "local group" should be substituted for "tribe."The Dieri, divided into five local hordes, are still subdivided into smaller "local groups, each having a definite tract of hunting and food ground."[414]These local groups cannot be very numerous. The whole tribe numbers about 250. There are at least ten local groups, since they include about twenty persons each. But we do not know whether such a local group lived in a body or scattered over its territory.[415]We owe one of our best statements as to the nature of the local group to Spencer and Gillen. Its totemic character, its organization with thealatunjaat its head, the different functions of magico-religious character and many other social functions and characteristics define it perfectly well.[416]The territorial division seems to be much the same in all the tribes studied by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. "In all the tribes there is a division into local groups, which occupy certain well-defined areas within the tribal territory."[417]The possession of land is vested in them. "There is no such thing as one man being regarded as the owner of any tract of country. In every case the unit of division is the local totemic group."[418]This statement is quite clear. The local group owns a certain area, and all the individuals have the right to hunt and roam over it. They do not do it in one body, they live scattered in much smaller parties of one or two families. "The members of this (local group) wander, perhaps in small parties of one or two families, often, for example, two or more brothers with their wives and children, over the land which they own, camping at favourite spots, where the presence of water-holes, with their accompaniment of vegetable and animal food, enables them to supply their wants."[419]Here the picture is perfectly clear: the territorial unit is the local group; within its grounds all members have the right to hunt and roam; no other people may trespass over the boundaries. Such trespasses do not in reality frequently happen.[420]The area is not only economically the property of the local group, there are much stronger ties between the land, once the hunting and ceremonial ground of the Alcheringa ancestors, and their actualdescendants.[421]But the local group does not form one body; division into single families seems to be, under ordinary circumstances, the normal status. We get here a good insight into the inner structure of a local group, the chief feature of which is the isolation of families. The local group acts as a body chiefly on ceremonial occasions. To sum up: the local group is the joint land-owner; proprietorship means exclusive rights to hunt and roam over the country; but in the native's mind it has much deeper roots, and the connection between the local group and its hunting-grounds is based upon all their traditions and creeds. Their mode of living is scattered; they hang usually round favourite spots (see below).Speaking of the totemic myths of the Northern tribes Mr. Mathews says: "In those olden days, as at present, the totemic ancestors consisted of families or groups of families, who had their recognized grounds in some part of the tribal territory."[422]Among the natives of Queensland[423]the territory is parcelled out completely amongst the different local groups; the boundaries are well known and mutually respected. This district is again subdivided amongst the members of the local group; the proprietor "has the exclusive right to direct when it should be hunted over, and the grass burned and the wild animals destroyed." If other men aggregate and use the products of his land he is regarded as the master of ceremonies. This statement gives us at least a clear and consistent definition of private proprietorship, which seems to be of a formal, ceremonial character. But it is not complete. We do not know if normally each family enjoys its district alone, with the head of the family always master of ceremonies, or whether the whole local group, or parts of it, hunt and roam usually in bodies. This statement is, therefore, not very useful.We read about the Kabi and Wakka tribes of Queensland: "A few families claiming the same territory usually camped and travelled together, sometimes in smaller, sometimes in larger numbers. I characterize such family groups as communities."[424]And again: "Such communities were constitutedby a few families occupying the same small area in common."[425]This is a clear definition of what we called local group, and agrees perfectly well with the general picture already outlined.E. Palmer says that the game and other products of a certain country belonged to the tribe (= local group) there residing; the boundaries were respected and trespassers punished by death.[426]In North-West Central Queensland the "tribe" (our local group) has its head-quarters.[427]This group has also an over-right over its territory, "over which the community as a whole has the right to hunt and roam."[428]There is still a further subdivision; each family possesses hunting-grounds of its own, and no other has the right to any product thereof without the family's permission. In the case of tribesmen, transgression is a trifle; in that of strangers, a very serious offence.[429]The statements of Roth do not, however, say anything about their mode of living. The mention of "head-quarters" points to a subdivision of land amongst families and to a scattered mode of living. In all probability we may assume here the following form: the local group as joint owner of its land; and single families having special rights to certain parts of it, and camping as a rule separately or in small groups, and aggregating in cases of emergency at the head-quarters. This is the only statement which attributes to families and individuals respectively a virtually exclusive right over a certain ground. We read in another place of the mode or rather the principle according to which individual proprietorship is determined in the North Queensland tribes: "The child's own country, its 'home' where it will in the future have the right to hunt and roam, is determined not by the place of actual birth, but by the locality where hischoihad been held apart."Choiis the spirit part of the child's father, embodied in the father's afterbirth. The place of thischoiis carefully determined after the child's birth, according to a customary ceremonial.[430]The extent of a local group is determined in the following statement: "there were from twelve to twenty heads of families constituting the group, each with its particular division, who together made the tribe."[431]Here again the land seems to be allotted to the local group, though, according to the foregoing passages, there was a further subdivision according to families.As an instance showing that there were sometimes territorial changes and shifting of tribes may be quoted the statement of G. W. Earl, who says that a big tribe came from the interior and established itself at the base of Coburg Peninsula.[432]How far this statement is reliable it is difficult to say. Anyhow it is in opposition to the numerous and reliable statements which affirm that tribal boundaries were strictly kept and never changed.The natives of Melville Island seem to have lived in more numerous groups. Major Campbell says that their "tribes" number from thirty to fifty persons each. On visiting an encampment he found about thirty wigwams, which would point to about fifty persons at least. "They lead a wandering life, though I think each tribe confines itself to a limited district."[433]A clear statement concerning the scattered mode of life is given of the North-Western aborigines by J. G. Withnell, who lived amongst them for twenty years. "The natives generally live in families at various intervals of a few miles down the course of each river and its creeks."[434]"In fact they are small families constantly moving camp a few miles in any direction they please."[435]In another place we read: "The natives are divided into many tribes, having their boundaries defined." These tribes are obviously our local group. The members thereof live scattered in small parties, called by Withnell "families." Very interesting is Withnell's information concerning totemic local centres quite analogous[436]to those described by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. It is important in our present discussion because it throws light upon the problem of the connection between an individual or a family and a certain tract of country. From Withnell's information[437]it results that among the North-Western tribes there were also totemic centres, allotted each to a "family" (local group or part thereof?) at which ceremonies for the multiplication of the totem were performed. The claim to such centres is hereditary.We read in Grey about the tribes of West Australia. "They appear to live in tribes (= local groups), subject, perhaps, to some individual authority; and each tribe has a sort of capital, or head-quarters, where the women and children remain whilst the men, divided into small parties, hunt and shoot in different directions. The largest number we saw together amounted nearly to 200, women and childrenincluded."[438]This directly asserts that the local group lived in one body; for of course the men were bound to return always to the head-quarters. Now if we had to assume that the local group numbered about 200 individuals we could hardly allow the possibility of obtaining food. Especially as in another place Grey says: "Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundaries." This land is divided by the father amongst his several sons. But Grey does not define what proprietorship means. These two statements are quite inconsistent with each other; if every man of a big local group had to go to hunt on his own grounds (and we know that the food area for an Australian family is not small) they would have to spend their life in making journeys between their hunting-grounds and head-quarters. We must either suppose that Grey's tribes were quite small local groups which lived each on its own territory, and that when he speaks of from 100 to 200 persons assembled he refers only to exceptional meetings, or that the individual ownership of land had no real economic meaning, and that the natives actually lived in these tribes in more numerous bodies (perhaps the coastal tribes at least). This statement is, therefore, not very useful.Bishop Salvado asserts a subdivision of land among single families (although he calls "family" a small party of related natives, seep. 257) acquired by right of birth.[439]Neighbouring families, small local groups, may enjoy their land in common.[440]Such small parties are quite independent, and governed by the oldest male.[441]They lead, as we may infer from that, normally a solitary, isolated existence. This statement of Bishop Salvado is also in agreement with the generality of our evidence. His "family" is evidently a small local group. (It reminds us of a similar unit amongst the Kurnai, also interrelated, owning a portion of land, governed by the oldest male). He says such small groups have been often incorrectly called tribes by other authors.Mrs. Bates says the South-West Australians were divided into tribes or families; "these tribes appear to have been aggregated into geographical groups ... each occupied a definite tract of country."[442]But in another place she says that "each (family) occupied a definite tract of country" with well-markedboundaries.[443]This statement is marred by the lack of precision in using words like tribes, families, etc. The only thing that can be made out of it is that there was some local unit owning a definite tract of country. The right of ownership is defined by the right of hunting. A man is allowed to hunt merely his own district. But he has access to his wife's district too.[444]In King George Sound each "tribe" (= local group) owns a certain district; this is further subdivided among individual families; each of these portions being hereditary in a certain family, which is proud of the extensiveness of its grounds. But all the members of the local group may roam and hunt over the whole territory. "Under normal conditions and in its own district the tribe (= local group) is divided into small parties or families; each party forming a camp of six or eight wurleys."[445]Only on special and important occasions does the local group aggregate. Strangers are not admitted to the territory. We see here, again, the actual proprietor of the land is the local group; families have some merely formal (or magical) claim to portions of it. The local group roams in parties, which are nevertheless not so very small. In from six to eight huts there may live from three to four families (we must count besides the married couples also the old people and grown-up children).Scott-Nind says about the natives of King George Sound, "An encampment rarely consists of more than seven or eight huts; for, except the fishing and burning seasons, at which times large parties assemble together, their numbers are generally small, and two or three huts suffice. The number of individuals, however, seldom exceeds fifty."[446]"These encampments generally consist of near relatives, and deserve the name of families rather than of tribes."[447]Natives who live together have the exclusive right of fishing or hunting upon the neighbouring grounds, which are, in fact, divided into individual properties; the quantity of land owned by each individual being very considerable. Yet it is not exclusively his, but others of his family have certain rights over it; so that it may be considered as partly belonging to the tribe. The individual owner must be present on his grounds when the members of his group fire the country for game.[448]We have here again the local group as real and exclusive land-owner, the individual having only mere formal rights over the land. Scott-Nind describes with details how in connectionwith and dependence on plentiful food supply, the natives gather in larger numbers at appropriate seasons.[449]He says in several places that the parties in which the natives live and roam about number only a few individuals.Out of the thirty-nine statements collected, thirty-one describe a certain group or family as owning a definite tract of country in common; this group is, by definition, what we called above the local group. But there are some complications as to its rights of possession over the given area. On the one hand there is some kind of "over-right" of the tribe over the district inhabited by all the local groups of which it is composed.[450]On the other hand there is a further complication arising from the alleged individual claims to landed property. As to the tribal over-right, it presents itself chiefly in the fact that, first, tribesmen (members of related and friendly local groups) are often invited and allowed on the territory of the local group; secondly, in cases of trespass, while strangers are punished severely (often by death), tribesmen are only considered slightly culpable. The tribe may probably sometimes congregate as a whole on a part of its grounds with the consent of the local group concerned. We must imagine the local groups of the same tribe as living in amicable relations and voluntarily exercising hospitality towards each other, especially in cases when food is plentiful on their territory.[451]But as a general rule the whole tribe neither uses its whole district, nor has a local group, forming a division of the tribe, the right to use any but its own territory withoutasking permission. The tribal over-right seems therefore of little importance.The rights of a local group over its territory are, on the other hand, the most important form of ownership, and the only one which possesses economic features. These rights mean that all members of a local group may roam over its territory and use all the products, hunt and collect food and useful objects. In the case of the Central and North Central tribes we are expressly told that no individual or family claims may interfere with the rights that every member of the local group has to the whole local area. In twenty-one of our thirty-one statements referring to the right of the local group, we are not told of any family or individual proprietorship. In the remaining eight cases single families or male individuals seem to have some vague claims to special tracts of country. In three cases the information is ambiguous on this point. In the case of the Bangerang, Moreton Bay tribes (J. D. Lang), King George's Sound natives (Nind and Browne), this right is either of a merely mystic, intangible character,[452]or it is a formal right which gives to the individual the priority in decisions as to hunting, burning of grass, etc., and makes him "master of ceremony" in cases of an assembly on the given spot. In two instances this individual "land ownership" is stated to assume a more economic aspect (G. S. Lang and W. E. Roth). There are, besides, two statements on family "ownership" which do not mention the local group. According to one of them (Collins) individual claims to land have a mystic, fictional character; according to Grey's statement, individual property in land was the only positive one; but this latter statement is inconsistent and does not define the sense of the word "property,"[453]and is therefore of little weight. So on the whole we have three statements asserting that landed property of an economic character was vested in individuals or in single families respectively. On closer examination, one of them appears to be quite ambiguous (G. S. Lang), and another one inconsistent with its context (Grey). Roth's statement seems to be an exception. He says: "For one family or individual to obtain, without permission, vegetable, fowl or meat upon the land belonging to another family" constitutes a trespass; but then he adds that owing to their great hospitality each family readily invites its neighbours and friends to partake of the products of its land. Roth's statement, although an exception, deserves to be noted, owing to its explicitness and to the reliability of the author. It is only regrettable he does not inform us concerning one point more, whether these families or individuals respectively resided usually on their territories and used them exclusively, or whether they usually aggregated and lived on each other's domains, every one being only the host on his own territory. It is only in the first case that individual proprietorship would have an actual importance; accepting the second hypothesis, we revert to the case where the local group (a number of aggregated families) possesses the actual right of use of the land, the individuals being only formal landlords of their parcels. If we accept, on the other hand, the view that single families were in a purely economic and legal sense owner of their own tract of land,i. e.that they enjoyed theusumfructumof the latter for themselves, and that exclusively,[454]then we must also believe that the families lived scattered, and assembled only in exceptional cases. This consequence is important. But we see easily that although it is inevitable, supposing actual land ownership in single families, still the latter state of thing is not a necessary condition of it. Even when land is invested in the group, single families may live scattered (compare below). Claims to land by individuals and families in the Northwestern Central Queensland tribes were also based on ideas of a magico-religious character, being probably a mere magical connection of an individual or family with a portion of the country. (Compare the statement fromNorth Queensland Ethnography.)Summing up, there are three different kinds of "proprietorship" in the aboriginal society; or more correctly three kinds of claims to, and connections with, a certain territory. First, actual rights of roaming, hunting, fishing and digging; these rights belong usually to the local group (exceptionally, perhaps, to single families or individuals). Secondly, the customary right of local groups forming a tribe, mutually to use their hunting-ground; these forms of proprietorship have been designated "tribal over-right."[455]Third, the immaterial claim of individuals or families to a portion of the local district; this special right seems to be rather exceptional, and it appears problematic whether it has any economic character. In the light of this distinction it can easily be understood how the actual right of the local group was modified in two directions. The tribesman was tolerated on or invited to the ground, whereas the non-tribesmanwas killed. On the other hand, individuals or single families had possibly some claims of an unimportant character to particular spots. In general, we find it expressed in nearly all the statements more or less explicitly that the natives had a very clear idea of the rights of the local group to its territory, and that the boundaries of it were respected without exception.[456]We pointed out that the rights of individuals to a certain tract of country had in general some vague magical character, and that they were probably always derived from some mystical relation of the individual to his birthplace or to another special spot. Now it may be added that there are hints pointing to the fact that possession of land in its real form,i. e.as invested in the local group, was probably based to a considerable degree on ideas of religious or magical kind. The information is unambiguous and detailed on this point as regards the Central and North-Central tribes. We know of a whole series of ideas of totemic character that bind a group of men to a given locality. How far this was valid in the other parts of the continent it is difficult to decide on the basis of the information available. But putting side by side the facts we know about the extremely large area investigated by Spencer and Gillen, with what we know of mystic individual rights in other tribes, we are justified in supposing that everywhere the rights of the local group (the only ones that present a real economic character) were the sum or resultant of such individual rights of magical or religious character, or that the group as a whole was attached by such ties to its area.[457]Now to pass on to the main problem: to the mode of living. From the previous discussion we may infer that when the local groups are very small in themselves, thenipso factothe natives live scattered in very small groups (Kurnai, probably Murring, Dieri, New South Wales tribes according to Rob. Dawson, and tribes described by Salvado).The same applies to the cases where we are told that the families own exclusively a certain area (Roth, G. S. Lang, Grey). But these cases were found to be not quite beyond question. In some instances when the local group is a larger unit, and there is no subdivision of land amongst families, several statements mention that the natives lived scattered in small groups, varying from two to four families perhaps. (Murray tribes according to Eyre; the Central and North-Central tribes according to Spencer and Gillen; the Moreton Bay tribes according to J. D. Lang; New South Wales tribes according to McDougall, Henderson and Hodgkinson; the Kabi and Wakka, West Australians according to Withnell, Browne, Scott-Nind.)In some cases there are reasons for supposing that the local group was larger (Bangerang, Western Victoria, at Encounter Bay, on the lakes; perhaps on the sea-shores in West Australia according to Grey). The remainder of our information (fifteen statements) does not give any clear answer to this question. From these approximately exact data we come to the conclusion that the majority of tribes lived in small groups of two or three familiesof six to nine individuals each, and only in a few tribes were there larger bodies living in actual daily contact.To get a more reliable answer on this point it is better to drop the less clear evidence and to take into consideration only such as is better and more reliable. If only the fully reliable and unambiguous statements be used, there are twelve affirming that aborigines live in small parties, which in some cases shrink to one family only (Howitt on the Kurnai; Eyre; R. Dawson; G. S. Lang; McDougall; Spencer and Gillen in the Central and North-Central tribes; Henderson; Hodgkinson; Rev. Matthew on the Kabi and Wakka; Withnell; Salvado). It should be noted that (1) some of these authorities are our best informants (Howitt Spencer and Gillen, Salvado); (2) that the area covered by these peoples is very extensive, and that the tribes in question are scattered over the whole continent. The statements which assert the mode of living in larger bodies are much less reliable. But it appears undoubted that the statements of Curr and Dawson, perhaps also those of Meyer, Schurman and Taplin (confirmed by Angas), are of quite unquestionable reliability. It is therefore clear that there were local differences in that respect. And such a geographical difference in the mode of living appears quite plausible, from general considerations. The reasons which must have determined the degree of aggregation in the Australian tribes were peculiarly economic ones: the scarcity of food supply was conditioned partly by the aridity of the soil, partly by the primitiveness of the means of procuring subsistence. Where the means of subsistence were plentiful and not easily exhausted, there larger groups could permanently aggregate. This was, in the first place, the case where fishing was at all possible. The Bangerang tribe resided in two large bodies at the junction of the Glenelg and Murray rivers; the large group of the Narrinyeri on Lake Alexandrina; probably the coastal tribes in general were larger and more sedentary. This seems corroborated bythe fact that they had usually larger and better-built huts (see below). The same factors would also tend to produce a more sedentary mode of living (the Bangerang, the Kurnai (partly at least), and possibly other coastal tribes). The view that density of population was directly dependent upon the nature of soil is strengthened by the direct statements of Wilhelmi, Turnbull, Moorhouse and Angas.[458]It may be mentioned that in places where, and times when, plenty of food was available, large numbers of natives gathered, but only temporarily,e. g.when a whale was stranded, or the Bunya-Bunya nuts were ripe, etc.[459]But as the major part of the continent is arid, we must suppose that the usual mode of living was in very small groups of one to three families; these groups being in exceptional cases regular local groups, in the majority of cases merely portions of them.Let us briefly examine whether this general assumption contradicts any other features of Australian triballife. If we consider their modes of procuring food, we find that the women had to go in search of roots, grubs, etc., in short do purely collecting work. It is obvious that this kind of work is never done well in big bands. On the other hand it is probable that one woman alone would be afraid to go on remote wanderings. The most favourable unit would be a group of two to three women with their children. The men hunted their game also in rather small groups. There do not seem to be any collective methods of hunting. The kangaroo was perhaps tired out by the common effort of several men. For the hunting of the smaller game, which was practically also a kind of searching, it would be rather unfavourable to go out in big parties. Considerations of an economic order, therefore, give no reason for discarding our assumption; on the contrary it is corroborated by them. To the question whether for security's sake the aborigines would not be compelled to aggregate, we must also return a negative answer. War was not the normal condition of the Australian blacks.[460]And I have not been able to find any statement of collective methods of organized defence.To sum up our results in a few words: the territorial division points only exceptionally and problematically, even in these exceptional cases, to possession of land by single families. The territorial unit, called by us Local Group, although varying in its extent according to the locality, appears to consist usually of several families. But these families in their turn live usually either in one smaller group, numbering two or three families or, exceptionally, one only. In more fertile tracts, near big rivers and fertile coastal districts, the number of families living in permanent contact appears to be greater; in the extensive arid areas the number of families grouped together seems to be rather small.
The three points hitherto discussed refer more exclusively to the relationship between husband and wife, and do not involve that between parents and children. They bear more on marriage than on the family. But, as so often repeated, the full description of marriage can be made only in connection with, and on the basis of, a knowledge of the family life in its larger sense. We proceed now to this more general discussion, and in order to carry it out on broad foundations it will be well in the first place to consider the family unit[353]in connection with the territorial and tribal organization; that is to consider the mode of living of the family in connection with the higher territorial and tribal units. It has been repeatedly said that each social unit should be discussed in connection with the general structure of society and the general conditions of life in a given area. When theoretically stated this appears a commonplace; in practice it is seldom carried out by ethnologists.
That the facts of aggregation are of the highest importance in sociology appears also to be quite clear.[354]Thesefacts have been described by Mr. Wheeler for the Australian aboriginal society, and we shall in several places refer to his work. It will serve us as a basis in the following discussion, which nevertheless does not appear superfluous as it is connected more exclusively with the problem of family. In this connection the main question to be asked is: Do the natives usually live scattered, in single families, or in larger groups? All the features of family life—the husband's authority, the sexual marital relation, the economics of the household, the relation of children to parents—would appear in a different light, and our ideas thereon might in many respects be modified according to the answer we obtained to the above question. This point (i. e.the mode of living) would also be decisive in the problem of group relationship: if the natives live normally in single families, which assemble only occasionally, then the individuality of the family relationship is placed beyond any doubt. And if there are, besides, any group relations, they must radically and absolutely differ from the individual one; for the latter, and it only, is constituted by the most powerfully binding element—continuous daily contact. If, however, the aborigines live in more or less numerous groups, our question is still open, and we have to inquire: Do the families, which (permanently or temporarily) form one body, live in a state of social communism and promiscuity? Or arethey more or less isolated from each other? That will form the second part of our task.[355]
Let us now gather information about the first point,i. e.the size of the groups in which the natives live. Our statements are at first sight contradictory on this point; but this is largely due to the total lack of fixed terminology. It will be well to settle the latter beforehand and determine more exactly what we are to look for in the statements. For that purpose we must forestall the results of our research and broadly outline the state of things; it will give us a guiding thread through the statements. Roughly speaking, in Australia the tribe as a social unit is characterized by name, common speech, custom and territory.[356]It is divided (and sometimes subdivided again) into smaller groups; these consist of individuals closely related, possess a sort of government, and are connected with a portion of the tribal territory which they practically use in common.[357]For the social division of the tribes is connected with and complicated by a parallel territorial partition. And there is always a certain territory allotted to the exclusive possession of a certain group. The tribe (as defined above) cannot be considered as proprietor[358]of the territory, for its differentdivisions may not encroach upon each other's grounds. We shall call (by way of definition) aLocal Group, such a division of the tribe as possesses the exclusive right to use a given territory and to dwell within its limits. In the following statements we will give a series of examples of these local units, and the different forms they assume in different tribes. It will be possible, too, to give a more precise meaning to the word "proprietorship"; and to see in what sense land may be possessed or claimed by the Australian blacks. The authors seldom try to give to these terms any clear meaning, or to discern all the existing differences; but these will be evident enough from the facts contained in the statements. The problem of territorial division is only the basis for our main question, viz. the mode of living. The Local Group, which is the joint owner of its territory, is, so to say, only the upper limit of aggregation;i. e.the body of persons actually and normally living together cannot be larger than that group, for only its members are (in normal conditions) admitted to its grounds. But this Local Group may also live scattered over its district. There will be several data in our information which would rather confirm us in this supposition.
Now let us review the statements, bearing in mind the exact meaning given to the words Tribe, Local Group and Family. We have agreed to call Local Group a unit owning in common a portion of country, and we are asking how big this unit is in different tribes; if it lives scattered or in a body; finally, what idea can we form of "land ownership" in Australia.
Statements.—The Kurnai were divided into five exogamous "clans."[359]These were divided and subdivided several times, "each subdivision having its own tract of hunting and food ground, until the unit was a small group of kindred, frequently an old man, his sons, married or unmarried, with their respective wives and children." The author gives an instance of a family claiming a certain island and the swans' eggs laid on it, as its property,[360]and living under the authority of the oldest male in the family. "Taking such a family[361]as the tribal unit of the Kurnai, it was the aggregation of such families that formed what may be called a division, inhabiting a large area, and the aggregate of the divisions formed the clan."[362]This, and the expression family as "tribal unit," shows that probably its members lived actually together. It is a pity that Howitt does not give even approximately the numbers. Again, in another place, he writes of a "natural spread of families over a tract of country," and of "elders as heads of families."[363]These "families" unite in cases of mutual need for aid and protection[364]and in cases of corroborees, initiations, etc.[365]—Here the local group was a small unit of related persons. It claimed a certain territory and exclusively used its products, and vested authority in its oldest male. These local groups usually must have lived isolated from each other, because of the exclusive right in using the given area. Howitt mentions also the beginnings of individual claims to some products (swan's eggs) being even transmitted by inheritance.[366]The statements of Howitt concerning the Murring tribes are not quite clear. "Claims to a particular tract of country arose in certain of these tribes by birth."[367]He does not say if these claims consisted in actual right to live, roam and hunt over the said tract of country. It is probable, however, that just this is the meaning, as he speaks immediately afterwards of an hereditary principle as to the grounds determining the habitation where one lives—a father pointing out the bounds of his child's country—"where his father lived, or himself wasborn and had lived."[368]If we can assume that each "family" (= local group) had its hunting-grounds so designated this would point to a far-going subdivision of country and consequently of the tribe; we can hardly infer anything conclusive from this statement alone. But it appears clearer in the light of the following remark: "The local group has in all cases been perpetuated in the same place from father to son by occupation, I may almost say by inheritance, of the hunting-grounds."[369]It seems, therefore, that generally in the tribes studied by Howitt, the local group (he calls it the "family," speaking of the Kurnai) was a very well-defined unit. And that, in the tribes in question the people who inherit a certain territory from father to son are just members of the local group. Its rights to the hunting-grounds were based on some—perhaps magic or religious—ideas of heredity.An analogous state of things is reported to have obtained among the Wurunjerri (Victoria): "The right to hunt and to procure food in any particular tract of the country belonged to the group of people born there, and could not be infringed by others without permission."[370]In the territory of the same tribe there was a stone-quarry, the material of which was very valuable to the natives. The quarry was the property of a group of people living on the spot; the head of this group had special rights in connection with it. "It was Billi-billeri, the head of the family, whose country included the quarry, who lived on it, and took care of it for the whole of the Wurunjerri community."[371]This statement appears to me very important, as it shows how rights of possession might belong to a local group and centre in the headman of this group. This statement suffices to reconcile the apparent contradiction between individual claims to a country and group claims.The local groups amongst the Bangerang, who lived at the junction of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers, seem to have been more numerous, owing, perhaps, to the easiness of food supply on the banks of two fishy rivers.[372]The tribe was divided in two exogamous moieties,[373]and the land "was parcelled out between these two sub-tribes."[374]Each respectively lived in a body, although moving sometimes from place to place. Curr speaks of their head-quarters in places abounding with fish.[375]One of the sections numbered about 150, the other somewhatless. These two "sub-tribes" or moieties constituted, therefore, rather numerous local groups. The "sub-tribes" of the kindred tribes mentioned by Curr seem also to have been numerous,[376]and to have lived each in a body,[377]so that they would be, according to our terminology, numerous local groups. Curr speaks also of individual property in land, but this seems to have had only a purely fictitious meaning, having nothing to do with any real right.[378]Private property in other things (e. g.fishing weirs, etc.) was known.[379]Curr uses the termtribein place of ourlocal group. In his general work on Australia he gives a definition of tribe which quite agrees with what we called local group.[380]"By the word tribe I mean a number of men closely allied by blood, and living in the strictest alliance, offensive and defensive, who, with their wives and children, occupy, practically in common, and in exclusion of others, a tract of country...." Everybody must respect the customs of his tribe; and as no one may live apart from the tribal community, "there is no alternative between compliance with tribal custom and death."[381]"Although the lands of a tribe arenominallyparcelled out amongst its members, it is the fact that they are used in common, and for several reasons must have always been used so." First, because for mutual protection the tribesmen must have often associated. Secondly, because of the economic conditions the tribe often was compelled to feed on a given spot.[382]Angas, describing his travels in the Murray River district, tells that he met several times with native encampments; from the passage in question[383]we may infer that they were small groups. He says[384]that on the seaside (Encounter Bay), on the lakes, and on the Murray banks, where means of subsistence were fairly easy, the local groups were numerous. But this information is very loose.Amongst the tribes of the Lower Murray River "particular districts having a radius of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the property and hunting-groundsof the tribes who frequent them."[385]Eyre speaks of a further division of land amongst single individuals; it is handed down hereditarily in the male line. "A man can dispose of or barter his land to others."[386]At any rate, all members of a "tribe" (= local group) may roam over the common territory. It seems, nevertheless, to be rather a formal than actual, exclusive right.[387]The local groups may not trespass on their respective territories without permission.[388]The whole local group congregates only "if there is any particular variety more abundant than another, or procurable only in certain localities. Should this not be the case, then they are probably scattered over their district in detached groups, or separate families."[389]Here we are well informed on our principal points: the local group is the exclusive joint landowner; the individual has some claims which are not quite clearly defined, but surely do not mean exclusive economicusum fructum. They live scattered in small parties over their area. There is another passage in Eyre's book that confirms this latter point. He says that each family is independent and governed by the father; but that, "as a matter of policy, he always informs his fellows where he is going." So that "although a tribe may be dispersed all over their own district in single groups ... yet if you meet with any one family, they can at once tell you where you will find any other.... In cases of sudden danger or emergency, the scattered groups are rapidly warned or collected" by messenger or smoke signals.[390]Mitchell's expedition, when exploring the interior of South-East Australia, met a party of blacks on the banks of the Murray, whom they had seen before on the Darling a few hundred miles distant.[391]This would apparently contradict the assumption of fixed boundaries. But the general evidence shows that, in exceptional cases, and with the leave of the neighbouring tribes—especially if these were friendly—a local group or any party of natives were allowed to travel even considerable distances for purposes of warfare, barter or ceremonial gatherings.Amongst the Aborigines of Encounter Bay and Lower Murray River (the Narrinyeri) the local groups (H. E. A. Meyer calls them "tribes,"[392]or "large families" of connected people) seem to be numerous (the country abounds with fish and birds). These local groups have their head-quarters, from which their name is derived. But only in cases of greatabundance of food does the local group live and move together. Usually single families roam in parties; the sick and aged remain in the head-quarters, and suffer often from want of food. Not only in search of food, but for the sake of performing corroborees, initiations, etc., and visiting each other, do these local groups roam about the country.[393]From a passage in Taplin[394]we may infer that the local group of the Narrinyeri near Lake Alexandrina numbered about 200 natives.[395]The local groups of this tribe were, besides, exogamous, totemic, and had a regular form of government. We have not even a hint as to their mode of living; but if plentiful food supply was the chief condition of larger aggregations, then these latter would naturally have developed better in the lake country.Among the natives of Yorke's Peninsula there are local divisions; each with a certain totem and with headmen.[396]This seems analogous to the conditions among the Narrinyeri and Central tribes; but the information is not detailed enough to be considered quite reliable.The Port Lincoln tribes seem to roam about in small parties of several families.[397]This statement is not sufficiently clear; probably a number of such parties constituted a local group.We read, again, about the Port Lincoln tribes: "Each family has its distinct place, where they live together."[398]The uncertainty as to the sense in which the wordfamilyis used here makes this statement nearly useless. The same author says in another place: "It has been remarked that the population and general condition of the natives of Australia greatly depend on the nature of the locality they occupy; where the country is sterile and unproductive the natives are found to congregate in small numbers. In fertile districts they are comparatively numerous."[399]This opinion is in agreement with the fact that the population round Lake Alexandrina, where food supply was plentiful, was extremely dense.[400]An author who has made his observations on the blacks of the Murrumbidgee River (New South Wales) and Moreton Bay (Queensland) writes: Each "tribe" (= local group) occupies a definite tract of country; a trespass of its boundaries by a stranger is punished with death.[401]This commondistrict is subdivided among families of the local group. "During seasons when all the members of the tribe are not congregated together, each family hunts on its own grounds." The author quotes, also, instances where trees were marked and belonged to individuals.[402]This statement answers both our questions as to land ownership and modes of living; in both respects the "family" is the unit: it owns its area and it lives on and uses it normally in isolation from the others; proprietorship means here exclusive use. But we must bear in mind that what is called here family may as well be a small local group of closely related people, like those among the Kurnai. At any rate it certainly means that the blacks live in very small groups, perhaps in individual families, and that this scattered mode of living rests on a territorial basis. (In general the authority of G. S. Lang cannot be said to be of the best.)We read in the travels of Gerstaecker that natives carefully keep to the boundaries of their own district. So that a traveller, to be quite safe, should always change his guide when entering upon a new territory.[403]We read about the tribes of New South Wales in general: "Though they are constantly wandering about, yet they usually confine themselves to a radius of fifty or sixty miles from the place they consider their residence. If they venture beyond this, which they sometimes do with a party of whites, they always betray the greatest fear of falling in with some Myall or stranger blacks, who they say would put them to death immediately."[404]We find here again the local group owning its territory and having head-quarters; as well as the sacrosanctity of boundaries.Turnbull remarks about the New South Wales tribes that the best food supply, and consequently the largest gatherings, were possible on the sea-shore and on the banks of fishy rivers.[405]An example of family proprietorship in land is mentioned by Collins.[406]From it, it appears that this sort of proprietorship meant rather some mystic claim than any exclusive right of economic character.We are informed that among the natives of New South Wales there is a great number of small tribes, each containing from forty to fifty individuals. "Each tribe has a certain beat, or hunting-ground, frequently of not more than twenty miles indiameter, from which they never move, unless on certain occasions when they visit the territory of a neighbouring tribe for the purpose of a fight, or a ceremony. Sometimes, the tribe will wander about in parties of five or ten; at other times all the members will encamp together."[407]In substituting the wordlocal groupfortribe, we get here again a fairly good statement.In the statements of Fraser we find again the local group; he calls it "sub-tribe." It derives its name from a certain locality, owns a tract of country, which is guarded jealously against any infringement from any of the neighbouring sub-tribes.[408]This statement is illustrated by an example, and therefore appears rather trustworthy.[409]"Each tribe is divided into independent families, which acknowledge no chief, and which inhabit in common a district within certain limits, generally not exceeding above ten or twelve miles on any side." The tribes number from 100 to 300.[410]"The families belonging to a tribe meet together upon occasions of festivals at certain seasons, and also to consult upon all important occasions."[411]The first phrase is not clear: we are not told whether what he calls the tribe owns its area in common, or whether the divisions called "independent families" possess each its own district. From the context, however, we see that we must assume the latter. Three hundred people occupy in Australia usually more than a hundred square miles.Hodgkinson, speaking of the tribes between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, says that the tribes (local groups) keep each within very narrow limits. The district of each of them measures about 150 square miles; usually some ten to twelve miles of a river bank and the adjoining hinterland. "The whole body of a tribe is never united on the same spot, unless on some important occasion. They are more generally divided into small parties of eight or ten men, with their women and children, for the greater convenience of hunting, etc., and these detached companies roam over any part of the country within the prescribed limits of the main tribe to which they belong."[412]This statement agrees with the general type of information.Of the Coombangree tribe, New South Wales, it is said: "Each tribe kept its own belt of country and separated intosmall camps, and only collected on special occasions."[413]In this statement the words "local group" should be substituted for "tribe."The Dieri, divided into five local hordes, are still subdivided into smaller "local groups, each having a definite tract of hunting and food ground."[414]These local groups cannot be very numerous. The whole tribe numbers about 250. There are at least ten local groups, since they include about twenty persons each. But we do not know whether such a local group lived in a body or scattered over its territory.[415]We owe one of our best statements as to the nature of the local group to Spencer and Gillen. Its totemic character, its organization with thealatunjaat its head, the different functions of magico-religious character and many other social functions and characteristics define it perfectly well.[416]The territorial division seems to be much the same in all the tribes studied by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. "In all the tribes there is a division into local groups, which occupy certain well-defined areas within the tribal territory."[417]The possession of land is vested in them. "There is no such thing as one man being regarded as the owner of any tract of country. In every case the unit of division is the local totemic group."[418]This statement is quite clear. The local group owns a certain area, and all the individuals have the right to hunt and roam over it. They do not do it in one body, they live scattered in much smaller parties of one or two families. "The members of this (local group) wander, perhaps in small parties of one or two families, often, for example, two or more brothers with their wives and children, over the land which they own, camping at favourite spots, where the presence of water-holes, with their accompaniment of vegetable and animal food, enables them to supply their wants."[419]Here the picture is perfectly clear: the territorial unit is the local group; within its grounds all members have the right to hunt and roam; no other people may trespass over the boundaries. Such trespasses do not in reality frequently happen.[420]The area is not only economically the property of the local group, there are much stronger ties between the land, once the hunting and ceremonial ground of the Alcheringa ancestors, and their actualdescendants.[421]But the local group does not form one body; division into single families seems to be, under ordinary circumstances, the normal status. We get here a good insight into the inner structure of a local group, the chief feature of which is the isolation of families. The local group acts as a body chiefly on ceremonial occasions. To sum up: the local group is the joint land-owner; proprietorship means exclusive rights to hunt and roam over the country; but in the native's mind it has much deeper roots, and the connection between the local group and its hunting-grounds is based upon all their traditions and creeds. Their mode of living is scattered; they hang usually round favourite spots (see below).Speaking of the totemic myths of the Northern tribes Mr. Mathews says: "In those olden days, as at present, the totemic ancestors consisted of families or groups of families, who had their recognized grounds in some part of the tribal territory."[422]Among the natives of Queensland[423]the territory is parcelled out completely amongst the different local groups; the boundaries are well known and mutually respected. This district is again subdivided amongst the members of the local group; the proprietor "has the exclusive right to direct when it should be hunted over, and the grass burned and the wild animals destroyed." If other men aggregate and use the products of his land he is regarded as the master of ceremonies. This statement gives us at least a clear and consistent definition of private proprietorship, which seems to be of a formal, ceremonial character. But it is not complete. We do not know if normally each family enjoys its district alone, with the head of the family always master of ceremonies, or whether the whole local group, or parts of it, hunt and roam usually in bodies. This statement is, therefore, not very useful.We read about the Kabi and Wakka tribes of Queensland: "A few families claiming the same territory usually camped and travelled together, sometimes in smaller, sometimes in larger numbers. I characterize such family groups as communities."[424]And again: "Such communities were constitutedby a few families occupying the same small area in common."[425]This is a clear definition of what we called local group, and agrees perfectly well with the general picture already outlined.E. Palmer says that the game and other products of a certain country belonged to the tribe (= local group) there residing; the boundaries were respected and trespassers punished by death.[426]In North-West Central Queensland the "tribe" (our local group) has its head-quarters.[427]This group has also an over-right over its territory, "over which the community as a whole has the right to hunt and roam."[428]There is still a further subdivision; each family possesses hunting-grounds of its own, and no other has the right to any product thereof without the family's permission. In the case of tribesmen, transgression is a trifle; in that of strangers, a very serious offence.[429]The statements of Roth do not, however, say anything about their mode of living. The mention of "head-quarters" points to a subdivision of land amongst families and to a scattered mode of living. In all probability we may assume here the following form: the local group as joint owner of its land; and single families having special rights to certain parts of it, and camping as a rule separately or in small groups, and aggregating in cases of emergency at the head-quarters. This is the only statement which attributes to families and individuals respectively a virtually exclusive right over a certain ground. We read in another place of the mode or rather the principle according to which individual proprietorship is determined in the North Queensland tribes: "The child's own country, its 'home' where it will in the future have the right to hunt and roam, is determined not by the place of actual birth, but by the locality where hischoihad been held apart."Choiis the spirit part of the child's father, embodied in the father's afterbirth. The place of thischoiis carefully determined after the child's birth, according to a customary ceremonial.[430]The extent of a local group is determined in the following statement: "there were from twelve to twenty heads of families constituting the group, each with its particular division, who together made the tribe."[431]Here again the land seems to be allotted to the local group, though, according to the foregoing passages, there was a further subdivision according to families.As an instance showing that there were sometimes territorial changes and shifting of tribes may be quoted the statement of G. W. Earl, who says that a big tribe came from the interior and established itself at the base of Coburg Peninsula.[432]How far this statement is reliable it is difficult to say. Anyhow it is in opposition to the numerous and reliable statements which affirm that tribal boundaries were strictly kept and never changed.The natives of Melville Island seem to have lived in more numerous groups. Major Campbell says that their "tribes" number from thirty to fifty persons each. On visiting an encampment he found about thirty wigwams, which would point to about fifty persons at least. "They lead a wandering life, though I think each tribe confines itself to a limited district."[433]A clear statement concerning the scattered mode of life is given of the North-Western aborigines by J. G. Withnell, who lived amongst them for twenty years. "The natives generally live in families at various intervals of a few miles down the course of each river and its creeks."[434]"In fact they are small families constantly moving camp a few miles in any direction they please."[435]In another place we read: "The natives are divided into many tribes, having their boundaries defined." These tribes are obviously our local group. The members thereof live scattered in small parties, called by Withnell "families." Very interesting is Withnell's information concerning totemic local centres quite analogous[436]to those described by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. It is important in our present discussion because it throws light upon the problem of the connection between an individual or a family and a certain tract of country. From Withnell's information[437]it results that among the North-Western tribes there were also totemic centres, allotted each to a "family" (local group or part thereof?) at which ceremonies for the multiplication of the totem were performed. The claim to such centres is hereditary.We read in Grey about the tribes of West Australia. "They appear to live in tribes (= local groups), subject, perhaps, to some individual authority; and each tribe has a sort of capital, or head-quarters, where the women and children remain whilst the men, divided into small parties, hunt and shoot in different directions. The largest number we saw together amounted nearly to 200, women and childrenincluded."[438]This directly asserts that the local group lived in one body; for of course the men were bound to return always to the head-quarters. Now if we had to assume that the local group numbered about 200 individuals we could hardly allow the possibility of obtaining food. Especially as in another place Grey says: "Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundaries." This land is divided by the father amongst his several sons. But Grey does not define what proprietorship means. These two statements are quite inconsistent with each other; if every man of a big local group had to go to hunt on his own grounds (and we know that the food area for an Australian family is not small) they would have to spend their life in making journeys between their hunting-grounds and head-quarters. We must either suppose that Grey's tribes were quite small local groups which lived each on its own territory, and that when he speaks of from 100 to 200 persons assembled he refers only to exceptional meetings, or that the individual ownership of land had no real economic meaning, and that the natives actually lived in these tribes in more numerous bodies (perhaps the coastal tribes at least). This statement is, therefore, not very useful.Bishop Salvado asserts a subdivision of land among single families (although he calls "family" a small party of related natives, seep. 257) acquired by right of birth.[439]Neighbouring families, small local groups, may enjoy their land in common.[440]Such small parties are quite independent, and governed by the oldest male.[441]They lead, as we may infer from that, normally a solitary, isolated existence. This statement of Bishop Salvado is also in agreement with the generality of our evidence. His "family" is evidently a small local group. (It reminds us of a similar unit amongst the Kurnai, also interrelated, owning a portion of land, governed by the oldest male). He says such small groups have been often incorrectly called tribes by other authors.Mrs. Bates says the South-West Australians were divided into tribes or families; "these tribes appear to have been aggregated into geographical groups ... each occupied a definite tract of country."[442]But in another place she says that "each (family) occupied a definite tract of country" with well-markedboundaries.[443]This statement is marred by the lack of precision in using words like tribes, families, etc. The only thing that can be made out of it is that there was some local unit owning a definite tract of country. The right of ownership is defined by the right of hunting. A man is allowed to hunt merely his own district. But he has access to his wife's district too.[444]In King George Sound each "tribe" (= local group) owns a certain district; this is further subdivided among individual families; each of these portions being hereditary in a certain family, which is proud of the extensiveness of its grounds. But all the members of the local group may roam and hunt over the whole territory. "Under normal conditions and in its own district the tribe (= local group) is divided into small parties or families; each party forming a camp of six or eight wurleys."[445]Only on special and important occasions does the local group aggregate. Strangers are not admitted to the territory. We see here, again, the actual proprietor of the land is the local group; families have some merely formal (or magical) claim to portions of it. The local group roams in parties, which are nevertheless not so very small. In from six to eight huts there may live from three to four families (we must count besides the married couples also the old people and grown-up children).Scott-Nind says about the natives of King George Sound, "An encampment rarely consists of more than seven or eight huts; for, except the fishing and burning seasons, at which times large parties assemble together, their numbers are generally small, and two or three huts suffice. The number of individuals, however, seldom exceeds fifty."[446]"These encampments generally consist of near relatives, and deserve the name of families rather than of tribes."[447]Natives who live together have the exclusive right of fishing or hunting upon the neighbouring grounds, which are, in fact, divided into individual properties; the quantity of land owned by each individual being very considerable. Yet it is not exclusively his, but others of his family have certain rights over it; so that it may be considered as partly belonging to the tribe. The individual owner must be present on his grounds when the members of his group fire the country for game.[448]We have here again the local group as real and exclusive land-owner, the individual having only mere formal rights over the land. Scott-Nind describes with details how in connectionwith and dependence on plentiful food supply, the natives gather in larger numbers at appropriate seasons.[449]He says in several places that the parties in which the natives live and roam about number only a few individuals.
Statements.—The Kurnai were divided into five exogamous "clans."[359]These were divided and subdivided several times, "each subdivision having its own tract of hunting and food ground, until the unit was a small group of kindred, frequently an old man, his sons, married or unmarried, with their respective wives and children." The author gives an instance of a family claiming a certain island and the swans' eggs laid on it, as its property,[360]and living under the authority of the oldest male in the family. "Taking such a family[361]as the tribal unit of the Kurnai, it was the aggregation of such families that formed what may be called a division, inhabiting a large area, and the aggregate of the divisions formed the clan."[362]This, and the expression family as "tribal unit," shows that probably its members lived actually together. It is a pity that Howitt does not give even approximately the numbers. Again, in another place, he writes of a "natural spread of families over a tract of country," and of "elders as heads of families."[363]These "families" unite in cases of mutual need for aid and protection[364]and in cases of corroborees, initiations, etc.[365]—Here the local group was a small unit of related persons. It claimed a certain territory and exclusively used its products, and vested authority in its oldest male. These local groups usually must have lived isolated from each other, because of the exclusive right in using the given area. Howitt mentions also the beginnings of individual claims to some products (swan's eggs) being even transmitted by inheritance.[366]
The statements of Howitt concerning the Murring tribes are not quite clear. "Claims to a particular tract of country arose in certain of these tribes by birth."[367]He does not say if these claims consisted in actual right to live, roam and hunt over the said tract of country. It is probable, however, that just this is the meaning, as he speaks immediately afterwards of an hereditary principle as to the grounds determining the habitation where one lives—a father pointing out the bounds of his child's country—"where his father lived, or himself wasborn and had lived."[368]If we can assume that each "family" (= local group) had its hunting-grounds so designated this would point to a far-going subdivision of country and consequently of the tribe; we can hardly infer anything conclusive from this statement alone. But it appears clearer in the light of the following remark: "The local group has in all cases been perpetuated in the same place from father to son by occupation, I may almost say by inheritance, of the hunting-grounds."[369]It seems, therefore, that generally in the tribes studied by Howitt, the local group (he calls it the "family," speaking of the Kurnai) was a very well-defined unit. And that, in the tribes in question the people who inherit a certain territory from father to son are just members of the local group. Its rights to the hunting-grounds were based on some—perhaps magic or religious—ideas of heredity.
An analogous state of things is reported to have obtained among the Wurunjerri (Victoria): "The right to hunt and to procure food in any particular tract of the country belonged to the group of people born there, and could not be infringed by others without permission."[370]In the territory of the same tribe there was a stone-quarry, the material of which was very valuable to the natives. The quarry was the property of a group of people living on the spot; the head of this group had special rights in connection with it. "It was Billi-billeri, the head of the family, whose country included the quarry, who lived on it, and took care of it for the whole of the Wurunjerri community."[371]This statement appears to me very important, as it shows how rights of possession might belong to a local group and centre in the headman of this group. This statement suffices to reconcile the apparent contradiction between individual claims to a country and group claims.
The local groups amongst the Bangerang, who lived at the junction of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers, seem to have been more numerous, owing, perhaps, to the easiness of food supply on the banks of two fishy rivers.[372]The tribe was divided in two exogamous moieties,[373]and the land "was parcelled out between these two sub-tribes."[374]Each respectively lived in a body, although moving sometimes from place to place. Curr speaks of their head-quarters in places abounding with fish.[375]One of the sections numbered about 150, the other somewhatless. These two "sub-tribes" or moieties constituted, therefore, rather numerous local groups. The "sub-tribes" of the kindred tribes mentioned by Curr seem also to have been numerous,[376]and to have lived each in a body,[377]so that they would be, according to our terminology, numerous local groups. Curr speaks also of individual property in land, but this seems to have had only a purely fictitious meaning, having nothing to do with any real right.[378]Private property in other things (e. g.fishing weirs, etc.) was known.[379]
Curr uses the termtribein place of ourlocal group. In his general work on Australia he gives a definition of tribe which quite agrees with what we called local group.[380]"By the word tribe I mean a number of men closely allied by blood, and living in the strictest alliance, offensive and defensive, who, with their wives and children, occupy, practically in common, and in exclusion of others, a tract of country...." Everybody must respect the customs of his tribe; and as no one may live apart from the tribal community, "there is no alternative between compliance with tribal custom and death."[381]"Although the lands of a tribe arenominallyparcelled out amongst its members, it is the fact that they are used in common, and for several reasons must have always been used so." First, because for mutual protection the tribesmen must have often associated. Secondly, because of the economic conditions the tribe often was compelled to feed on a given spot.[382]
Angas, describing his travels in the Murray River district, tells that he met several times with native encampments; from the passage in question[383]we may infer that they were small groups. He says[384]that on the seaside (Encounter Bay), on the lakes, and on the Murray banks, where means of subsistence were fairly easy, the local groups were numerous. But this information is very loose.
Amongst the tribes of the Lower Murray River "particular districts having a radius of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the property and hunting-groundsof the tribes who frequent them."[385]Eyre speaks of a further division of land amongst single individuals; it is handed down hereditarily in the male line. "A man can dispose of or barter his land to others."[386]At any rate, all members of a "tribe" (= local group) may roam over the common territory. It seems, nevertheless, to be rather a formal than actual, exclusive right.[387]The local groups may not trespass on their respective territories without permission.[388]The whole local group congregates only "if there is any particular variety more abundant than another, or procurable only in certain localities. Should this not be the case, then they are probably scattered over their district in detached groups, or separate families."[389]Here we are well informed on our principal points: the local group is the exclusive joint landowner; the individual has some claims which are not quite clearly defined, but surely do not mean exclusive economicusum fructum. They live scattered in small parties over their area. There is another passage in Eyre's book that confirms this latter point. He says that each family is independent and governed by the father; but that, "as a matter of policy, he always informs his fellows where he is going." So that "although a tribe may be dispersed all over their own district in single groups ... yet if you meet with any one family, they can at once tell you where you will find any other.... In cases of sudden danger or emergency, the scattered groups are rapidly warned or collected" by messenger or smoke signals.[390]
Mitchell's expedition, when exploring the interior of South-East Australia, met a party of blacks on the banks of the Murray, whom they had seen before on the Darling a few hundred miles distant.[391]This would apparently contradict the assumption of fixed boundaries. But the general evidence shows that, in exceptional cases, and with the leave of the neighbouring tribes—especially if these were friendly—a local group or any party of natives were allowed to travel even considerable distances for purposes of warfare, barter or ceremonial gatherings.
Amongst the Aborigines of Encounter Bay and Lower Murray River (the Narrinyeri) the local groups (H. E. A. Meyer calls them "tribes,"[392]or "large families" of connected people) seem to be numerous (the country abounds with fish and birds). These local groups have their head-quarters, from which their name is derived. But only in cases of greatabundance of food does the local group live and move together. Usually single families roam in parties; the sick and aged remain in the head-quarters, and suffer often from want of food. Not only in search of food, but for the sake of performing corroborees, initiations, etc., and visiting each other, do these local groups roam about the country.[393]
From a passage in Taplin[394]we may infer that the local group of the Narrinyeri near Lake Alexandrina numbered about 200 natives.[395]The local groups of this tribe were, besides, exogamous, totemic, and had a regular form of government. We have not even a hint as to their mode of living; but if plentiful food supply was the chief condition of larger aggregations, then these latter would naturally have developed better in the lake country.
Among the natives of Yorke's Peninsula there are local divisions; each with a certain totem and with headmen.[396]This seems analogous to the conditions among the Narrinyeri and Central tribes; but the information is not detailed enough to be considered quite reliable.
The Port Lincoln tribes seem to roam about in small parties of several families.[397]This statement is not sufficiently clear; probably a number of such parties constituted a local group.
We read, again, about the Port Lincoln tribes: "Each family has its distinct place, where they live together."[398]The uncertainty as to the sense in which the wordfamilyis used here makes this statement nearly useless. The same author says in another place: "It has been remarked that the population and general condition of the natives of Australia greatly depend on the nature of the locality they occupy; where the country is sterile and unproductive the natives are found to congregate in small numbers. In fertile districts they are comparatively numerous."[399]This opinion is in agreement with the fact that the population round Lake Alexandrina, where food supply was plentiful, was extremely dense.[400]
An author who has made his observations on the blacks of the Murrumbidgee River (New South Wales) and Moreton Bay (Queensland) writes: Each "tribe" (= local group) occupies a definite tract of country; a trespass of its boundaries by a stranger is punished with death.[401]This commondistrict is subdivided among families of the local group. "During seasons when all the members of the tribe are not congregated together, each family hunts on its own grounds." The author quotes, also, instances where trees were marked and belonged to individuals.[402]This statement answers both our questions as to land ownership and modes of living; in both respects the "family" is the unit: it owns its area and it lives on and uses it normally in isolation from the others; proprietorship means here exclusive use. But we must bear in mind that what is called here family may as well be a small local group of closely related people, like those among the Kurnai. At any rate it certainly means that the blacks live in very small groups, perhaps in individual families, and that this scattered mode of living rests on a territorial basis. (In general the authority of G. S. Lang cannot be said to be of the best.)
We read in the travels of Gerstaecker that natives carefully keep to the boundaries of their own district. So that a traveller, to be quite safe, should always change his guide when entering upon a new territory.[403]
We read about the tribes of New South Wales in general: "Though they are constantly wandering about, yet they usually confine themselves to a radius of fifty or sixty miles from the place they consider their residence. If they venture beyond this, which they sometimes do with a party of whites, they always betray the greatest fear of falling in with some Myall or stranger blacks, who they say would put them to death immediately."[404]We find here again the local group owning its territory and having head-quarters; as well as the sacrosanctity of boundaries.
Turnbull remarks about the New South Wales tribes that the best food supply, and consequently the largest gatherings, were possible on the sea-shore and on the banks of fishy rivers.[405]
An example of family proprietorship in land is mentioned by Collins.[406]From it, it appears that this sort of proprietorship meant rather some mystic claim than any exclusive right of economic character.
We are informed that among the natives of New South Wales there is a great number of small tribes, each containing from forty to fifty individuals. "Each tribe has a certain beat, or hunting-ground, frequently of not more than twenty miles indiameter, from which they never move, unless on certain occasions when they visit the territory of a neighbouring tribe for the purpose of a fight, or a ceremony. Sometimes, the tribe will wander about in parties of five or ten; at other times all the members will encamp together."[407]In substituting the wordlocal groupfortribe, we get here again a fairly good statement.
In the statements of Fraser we find again the local group; he calls it "sub-tribe." It derives its name from a certain locality, owns a tract of country, which is guarded jealously against any infringement from any of the neighbouring sub-tribes.[408]This statement is illustrated by an example, and therefore appears rather trustworthy.[409]
"Each tribe is divided into independent families, which acknowledge no chief, and which inhabit in common a district within certain limits, generally not exceeding above ten or twelve miles on any side." The tribes number from 100 to 300.[410]"The families belonging to a tribe meet together upon occasions of festivals at certain seasons, and also to consult upon all important occasions."[411]The first phrase is not clear: we are not told whether what he calls the tribe owns its area in common, or whether the divisions called "independent families" possess each its own district. From the context, however, we see that we must assume the latter. Three hundred people occupy in Australia usually more than a hundred square miles.
Hodgkinson, speaking of the tribes between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, says that the tribes (local groups) keep each within very narrow limits. The district of each of them measures about 150 square miles; usually some ten to twelve miles of a river bank and the adjoining hinterland. "The whole body of a tribe is never united on the same spot, unless on some important occasion. They are more generally divided into small parties of eight or ten men, with their women and children, for the greater convenience of hunting, etc., and these detached companies roam over any part of the country within the prescribed limits of the main tribe to which they belong."[412]This statement agrees with the general type of information.
Of the Coombangree tribe, New South Wales, it is said: "Each tribe kept its own belt of country and separated intosmall camps, and only collected on special occasions."[413]In this statement the words "local group" should be substituted for "tribe."
The Dieri, divided into five local hordes, are still subdivided into smaller "local groups, each having a definite tract of hunting and food ground."[414]These local groups cannot be very numerous. The whole tribe numbers about 250. There are at least ten local groups, since they include about twenty persons each. But we do not know whether such a local group lived in a body or scattered over its territory.[415]
We owe one of our best statements as to the nature of the local group to Spencer and Gillen. Its totemic character, its organization with thealatunjaat its head, the different functions of magico-religious character and many other social functions and characteristics define it perfectly well.[416]The territorial division seems to be much the same in all the tribes studied by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. "In all the tribes there is a division into local groups, which occupy certain well-defined areas within the tribal territory."[417]The possession of land is vested in them. "There is no such thing as one man being regarded as the owner of any tract of country. In every case the unit of division is the local totemic group."[418]This statement is quite clear. The local group owns a certain area, and all the individuals have the right to hunt and roam over it. They do not do it in one body, they live scattered in much smaller parties of one or two families. "The members of this (local group) wander, perhaps in small parties of one or two families, often, for example, two or more brothers with their wives and children, over the land which they own, camping at favourite spots, where the presence of water-holes, with their accompaniment of vegetable and animal food, enables them to supply their wants."[419]Here the picture is perfectly clear: the territorial unit is the local group; within its grounds all members have the right to hunt and roam; no other people may trespass over the boundaries. Such trespasses do not in reality frequently happen.[420]The area is not only economically the property of the local group, there are much stronger ties between the land, once the hunting and ceremonial ground of the Alcheringa ancestors, and their actualdescendants.[421]But the local group does not form one body; division into single families seems to be, under ordinary circumstances, the normal status. We get here a good insight into the inner structure of a local group, the chief feature of which is the isolation of families. The local group acts as a body chiefly on ceremonial occasions. To sum up: the local group is the joint land-owner; proprietorship means exclusive rights to hunt and roam over the country; but in the native's mind it has much deeper roots, and the connection between the local group and its hunting-grounds is based upon all their traditions and creeds. Their mode of living is scattered; they hang usually round favourite spots (see below).
Speaking of the totemic myths of the Northern tribes Mr. Mathews says: "In those olden days, as at present, the totemic ancestors consisted of families or groups of families, who had their recognized grounds in some part of the tribal territory."[422]
Among the natives of Queensland[423]the territory is parcelled out completely amongst the different local groups; the boundaries are well known and mutually respected. This district is again subdivided amongst the members of the local group; the proprietor "has the exclusive right to direct when it should be hunted over, and the grass burned and the wild animals destroyed." If other men aggregate and use the products of his land he is regarded as the master of ceremonies. This statement gives us at least a clear and consistent definition of private proprietorship, which seems to be of a formal, ceremonial character. But it is not complete. We do not know if normally each family enjoys its district alone, with the head of the family always master of ceremonies, or whether the whole local group, or parts of it, hunt and roam usually in bodies. This statement is, therefore, not very useful.
We read about the Kabi and Wakka tribes of Queensland: "A few families claiming the same territory usually camped and travelled together, sometimes in smaller, sometimes in larger numbers. I characterize such family groups as communities."[424]And again: "Such communities were constitutedby a few families occupying the same small area in common."[425]This is a clear definition of what we called local group, and agrees perfectly well with the general picture already outlined.
E. Palmer says that the game and other products of a certain country belonged to the tribe (= local group) there residing; the boundaries were respected and trespassers punished by death.[426]
In North-West Central Queensland the "tribe" (our local group) has its head-quarters.[427]This group has also an over-right over its territory, "over which the community as a whole has the right to hunt and roam."[428]There is still a further subdivision; each family possesses hunting-grounds of its own, and no other has the right to any product thereof without the family's permission. In the case of tribesmen, transgression is a trifle; in that of strangers, a very serious offence.[429]The statements of Roth do not, however, say anything about their mode of living. The mention of "head-quarters" points to a subdivision of land amongst families and to a scattered mode of living. In all probability we may assume here the following form: the local group as joint owner of its land; and single families having special rights to certain parts of it, and camping as a rule separately or in small groups, and aggregating in cases of emergency at the head-quarters. This is the only statement which attributes to families and individuals respectively a virtually exclusive right over a certain ground. We read in another place of the mode or rather the principle according to which individual proprietorship is determined in the North Queensland tribes: "The child's own country, its 'home' where it will in the future have the right to hunt and roam, is determined not by the place of actual birth, but by the locality where hischoihad been held apart."Choiis the spirit part of the child's father, embodied in the father's afterbirth. The place of thischoiis carefully determined after the child's birth, according to a customary ceremonial.[430]The extent of a local group is determined in the following statement: "there were from twelve to twenty heads of families constituting the group, each with its particular division, who together made the tribe."[431]Here again the land seems to be allotted to the local group, though, according to the foregoing passages, there was a further subdivision according to families.
As an instance showing that there were sometimes territorial changes and shifting of tribes may be quoted the statement of G. W. Earl, who says that a big tribe came from the interior and established itself at the base of Coburg Peninsula.[432]How far this statement is reliable it is difficult to say. Anyhow it is in opposition to the numerous and reliable statements which affirm that tribal boundaries were strictly kept and never changed.
The natives of Melville Island seem to have lived in more numerous groups. Major Campbell says that their "tribes" number from thirty to fifty persons each. On visiting an encampment he found about thirty wigwams, which would point to about fifty persons at least. "They lead a wandering life, though I think each tribe confines itself to a limited district."[433]
A clear statement concerning the scattered mode of life is given of the North-Western aborigines by J. G. Withnell, who lived amongst them for twenty years. "The natives generally live in families at various intervals of a few miles down the course of each river and its creeks."[434]"In fact they are small families constantly moving camp a few miles in any direction they please."[435]In another place we read: "The natives are divided into many tribes, having their boundaries defined." These tribes are obviously our local group. The members thereof live scattered in small parties, called by Withnell "families." Very interesting is Withnell's information concerning totemic local centres quite analogous[436]to those described by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. It is important in our present discussion because it throws light upon the problem of the connection between an individual or a family and a certain tract of country. From Withnell's information[437]it results that among the North-Western tribes there were also totemic centres, allotted each to a "family" (local group or part thereof?) at which ceremonies for the multiplication of the totem were performed. The claim to such centres is hereditary.
We read in Grey about the tribes of West Australia. "They appear to live in tribes (= local groups), subject, perhaps, to some individual authority; and each tribe has a sort of capital, or head-quarters, where the women and children remain whilst the men, divided into small parties, hunt and shoot in different directions. The largest number we saw together amounted nearly to 200, women and childrenincluded."[438]This directly asserts that the local group lived in one body; for of course the men were bound to return always to the head-quarters. Now if we had to assume that the local group numbered about 200 individuals we could hardly allow the possibility of obtaining food. Especially as in another place Grey says: "Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundaries." This land is divided by the father amongst his several sons. But Grey does not define what proprietorship means. These two statements are quite inconsistent with each other; if every man of a big local group had to go to hunt on his own grounds (and we know that the food area for an Australian family is not small) they would have to spend their life in making journeys between their hunting-grounds and head-quarters. We must either suppose that Grey's tribes were quite small local groups which lived each on its own territory, and that when he speaks of from 100 to 200 persons assembled he refers only to exceptional meetings, or that the individual ownership of land had no real economic meaning, and that the natives actually lived in these tribes in more numerous bodies (perhaps the coastal tribes at least). This statement is, therefore, not very useful.
Bishop Salvado asserts a subdivision of land among single families (although he calls "family" a small party of related natives, seep. 257) acquired by right of birth.[439]Neighbouring families, small local groups, may enjoy their land in common.[440]Such small parties are quite independent, and governed by the oldest male.[441]They lead, as we may infer from that, normally a solitary, isolated existence. This statement of Bishop Salvado is also in agreement with the generality of our evidence. His "family" is evidently a small local group. (It reminds us of a similar unit amongst the Kurnai, also interrelated, owning a portion of land, governed by the oldest male). He says such small groups have been often incorrectly called tribes by other authors.
Mrs. Bates says the South-West Australians were divided into tribes or families; "these tribes appear to have been aggregated into geographical groups ... each occupied a definite tract of country."[442]But in another place she says that "each (family) occupied a definite tract of country" with well-markedboundaries.[443]This statement is marred by the lack of precision in using words like tribes, families, etc. The only thing that can be made out of it is that there was some local unit owning a definite tract of country. The right of ownership is defined by the right of hunting. A man is allowed to hunt merely his own district. But he has access to his wife's district too.[444]
In King George Sound each "tribe" (= local group) owns a certain district; this is further subdivided among individual families; each of these portions being hereditary in a certain family, which is proud of the extensiveness of its grounds. But all the members of the local group may roam and hunt over the whole territory. "Under normal conditions and in its own district the tribe (= local group) is divided into small parties or families; each party forming a camp of six or eight wurleys."[445]Only on special and important occasions does the local group aggregate. Strangers are not admitted to the territory. We see here, again, the actual proprietor of the land is the local group; families have some merely formal (or magical) claim to portions of it. The local group roams in parties, which are nevertheless not so very small. In from six to eight huts there may live from three to four families (we must count besides the married couples also the old people and grown-up children).
Scott-Nind says about the natives of King George Sound, "An encampment rarely consists of more than seven or eight huts; for, except the fishing and burning seasons, at which times large parties assemble together, their numbers are generally small, and two or three huts suffice. The number of individuals, however, seldom exceeds fifty."[446]"These encampments generally consist of near relatives, and deserve the name of families rather than of tribes."[447]Natives who live together have the exclusive right of fishing or hunting upon the neighbouring grounds, which are, in fact, divided into individual properties; the quantity of land owned by each individual being very considerable. Yet it is not exclusively his, but others of his family have certain rights over it; so that it may be considered as partly belonging to the tribe. The individual owner must be present on his grounds when the members of his group fire the country for game.[448]We have here again the local group as real and exclusive land-owner, the individual having only mere formal rights over the land. Scott-Nind describes with details how in connectionwith and dependence on plentiful food supply, the natives gather in larger numbers at appropriate seasons.[449]He says in several places that the parties in which the natives live and roam about number only a few individuals.
Out of the thirty-nine statements collected, thirty-one describe a certain group or family as owning a definite tract of country in common; this group is, by definition, what we called above the local group. But there are some complications as to its rights of possession over the given area. On the one hand there is some kind of "over-right" of the tribe over the district inhabited by all the local groups of which it is composed.[450]On the other hand there is a further complication arising from the alleged individual claims to landed property. As to the tribal over-right, it presents itself chiefly in the fact that, first, tribesmen (members of related and friendly local groups) are often invited and allowed on the territory of the local group; secondly, in cases of trespass, while strangers are punished severely (often by death), tribesmen are only considered slightly culpable. The tribe may probably sometimes congregate as a whole on a part of its grounds with the consent of the local group concerned. We must imagine the local groups of the same tribe as living in amicable relations and voluntarily exercising hospitality towards each other, especially in cases when food is plentiful on their territory.[451]But as a general rule the whole tribe neither uses its whole district, nor has a local group, forming a division of the tribe, the right to use any but its own territory withoutasking permission. The tribal over-right seems therefore of little importance.
The rights of a local group over its territory are, on the other hand, the most important form of ownership, and the only one which possesses economic features. These rights mean that all members of a local group may roam over its territory and use all the products, hunt and collect food and useful objects. In the case of the Central and North Central tribes we are expressly told that no individual or family claims may interfere with the rights that every member of the local group has to the whole local area. In twenty-one of our thirty-one statements referring to the right of the local group, we are not told of any family or individual proprietorship. In the remaining eight cases single families or male individuals seem to have some vague claims to special tracts of country. In three cases the information is ambiguous on this point. In the case of the Bangerang, Moreton Bay tribes (J. D. Lang), King George's Sound natives (Nind and Browne), this right is either of a merely mystic, intangible character,[452]or it is a formal right which gives to the individual the priority in decisions as to hunting, burning of grass, etc., and makes him "master of ceremony" in cases of an assembly on the given spot. In two instances this individual "land ownership" is stated to assume a more economic aspect (G. S. Lang and W. E. Roth). There are, besides, two statements on family "ownership" which do not mention the local group. According to one of them (Collins) individual claims to land have a mystic, fictional character; according to Grey's statement, individual property in land was the only positive one; but this latter statement is inconsistent and does not define the sense of the word "property,"[453]and is therefore of little weight. So on the whole we have three statements asserting that landed property of an economic character was vested in individuals or in single families respectively. On closer examination, one of them appears to be quite ambiguous (G. S. Lang), and another one inconsistent with its context (Grey). Roth's statement seems to be an exception. He says: "For one family or individual to obtain, without permission, vegetable, fowl or meat upon the land belonging to another family" constitutes a trespass; but then he adds that owing to their great hospitality each family readily invites its neighbours and friends to partake of the products of its land. Roth's statement, although an exception, deserves to be noted, owing to its explicitness and to the reliability of the author. It is only regrettable he does not inform us concerning one point more, whether these families or individuals respectively resided usually on their territories and used them exclusively, or whether they usually aggregated and lived on each other's domains, every one being only the host on his own territory. It is only in the first case that individual proprietorship would have an actual importance; accepting the second hypothesis, we revert to the case where the local group (a number of aggregated families) possesses the actual right of use of the land, the individuals being only formal landlords of their parcels. If we accept, on the other hand, the view that single families were in a purely economic and legal sense owner of their own tract of land,i. e.that they enjoyed theusumfructumof the latter for themselves, and that exclusively,[454]then we must also believe that the families lived scattered, and assembled only in exceptional cases. This consequence is important. But we see easily that although it is inevitable, supposing actual land ownership in single families, still the latter state of thing is not a necessary condition of it. Even when land is invested in the group, single families may live scattered (compare below). Claims to land by individuals and families in the Northwestern Central Queensland tribes were also based on ideas of a magico-religious character, being probably a mere magical connection of an individual or family with a portion of the country. (Compare the statement fromNorth Queensland Ethnography.)
Summing up, there are three different kinds of "proprietorship" in the aboriginal society; or more correctly three kinds of claims to, and connections with, a certain territory. First, actual rights of roaming, hunting, fishing and digging; these rights belong usually to the local group (exceptionally, perhaps, to single families or individuals). Secondly, the customary right of local groups forming a tribe, mutually to use their hunting-ground; these forms of proprietorship have been designated "tribal over-right."[455]Third, the immaterial claim of individuals or families to a portion of the local district; this special right seems to be rather exceptional, and it appears problematic whether it has any economic character. In the light of this distinction it can easily be understood how the actual right of the local group was modified in two directions. The tribesman was tolerated on or invited to the ground, whereas the non-tribesmanwas killed. On the other hand, individuals or single families had possibly some claims of an unimportant character to particular spots. In general, we find it expressed in nearly all the statements more or less explicitly that the natives had a very clear idea of the rights of the local group to its territory, and that the boundaries of it were respected without exception.[456]
We pointed out that the rights of individuals to a certain tract of country had in general some vague magical character, and that they were probably always derived from some mystical relation of the individual to his birthplace or to another special spot. Now it may be added that there are hints pointing to the fact that possession of land in its real form,i. e.as invested in the local group, was probably based to a considerable degree on ideas of religious or magical kind. The information is unambiguous and detailed on this point as regards the Central and North-Central tribes. We know of a whole series of ideas of totemic character that bind a group of men to a given locality. How far this was valid in the other parts of the continent it is difficult to decide on the basis of the information available. But putting side by side the facts we know about the extremely large area investigated by Spencer and Gillen, with what we know of mystic individual rights in other tribes, we are justified in supposing that everywhere the rights of the local group (the only ones that present a real economic character) were the sum or resultant of such individual rights of magical or religious character, or that the group as a whole was attached by such ties to its area.[457]
Now to pass on to the main problem: to the mode of living. From the previous discussion we may infer that when the local groups are very small in themselves, thenipso factothe natives live scattered in very small groups (Kurnai, probably Murring, Dieri, New South Wales tribes according to Rob. Dawson, and tribes described by Salvado).
The same applies to the cases where we are told that the families own exclusively a certain area (Roth, G. S. Lang, Grey). But these cases were found to be not quite beyond question. In some instances when the local group is a larger unit, and there is no subdivision of land amongst families, several statements mention that the natives lived scattered in small groups, varying from two to four families perhaps. (Murray tribes according to Eyre; the Central and North-Central tribes according to Spencer and Gillen; the Moreton Bay tribes according to J. D. Lang; New South Wales tribes according to McDougall, Henderson and Hodgkinson; the Kabi and Wakka, West Australians according to Withnell, Browne, Scott-Nind.)
In some cases there are reasons for supposing that the local group was larger (Bangerang, Western Victoria, at Encounter Bay, on the lakes; perhaps on the sea-shores in West Australia according to Grey). The remainder of our information (fifteen statements) does not give any clear answer to this question. From these approximately exact data we come to the conclusion that the majority of tribes lived in small groups of two or three familiesof six to nine individuals each, and only in a few tribes were there larger bodies living in actual daily contact.
To get a more reliable answer on this point it is better to drop the less clear evidence and to take into consideration only such as is better and more reliable. If only the fully reliable and unambiguous statements be used, there are twelve affirming that aborigines live in small parties, which in some cases shrink to one family only (Howitt on the Kurnai; Eyre; R. Dawson; G. S. Lang; McDougall; Spencer and Gillen in the Central and North-Central tribes; Henderson; Hodgkinson; Rev. Matthew on the Kabi and Wakka; Withnell; Salvado). It should be noted that (1) some of these authorities are our best informants (Howitt Spencer and Gillen, Salvado); (2) that the area covered by these peoples is very extensive, and that the tribes in question are scattered over the whole continent. The statements which assert the mode of living in larger bodies are much less reliable. But it appears undoubted that the statements of Curr and Dawson, perhaps also those of Meyer, Schurman and Taplin (confirmed by Angas), are of quite unquestionable reliability. It is therefore clear that there were local differences in that respect. And such a geographical difference in the mode of living appears quite plausible, from general considerations. The reasons which must have determined the degree of aggregation in the Australian tribes were peculiarly economic ones: the scarcity of food supply was conditioned partly by the aridity of the soil, partly by the primitiveness of the means of procuring subsistence. Where the means of subsistence were plentiful and not easily exhausted, there larger groups could permanently aggregate. This was, in the first place, the case where fishing was at all possible. The Bangerang tribe resided in two large bodies at the junction of the Glenelg and Murray rivers; the large group of the Narrinyeri on Lake Alexandrina; probably the coastal tribes in general were larger and more sedentary. This seems corroborated bythe fact that they had usually larger and better-built huts (see below). The same factors would also tend to produce a more sedentary mode of living (the Bangerang, the Kurnai (partly at least), and possibly other coastal tribes). The view that density of population was directly dependent upon the nature of soil is strengthened by the direct statements of Wilhelmi, Turnbull, Moorhouse and Angas.[458]
It may be mentioned that in places where, and times when, plenty of food was available, large numbers of natives gathered, but only temporarily,e. g.when a whale was stranded, or the Bunya-Bunya nuts were ripe, etc.[459]But as the major part of the continent is arid, we must suppose that the usual mode of living was in very small groups of one to three families; these groups being in exceptional cases regular local groups, in the majority of cases merely portions of them.
Let us briefly examine whether this general assumption contradicts any other features of Australian triballife. If we consider their modes of procuring food, we find that the women had to go in search of roots, grubs, etc., in short do purely collecting work. It is obvious that this kind of work is never done well in big bands. On the other hand it is probable that one woman alone would be afraid to go on remote wanderings. The most favourable unit would be a group of two to three women with their children. The men hunted their game also in rather small groups. There do not seem to be any collective methods of hunting. The kangaroo was perhaps tired out by the common effort of several men. For the hunting of the smaller game, which was practically also a kind of searching, it would be rather unfavourable to go out in big parties. Considerations of an economic order, therefore, give no reason for discarding our assumption; on the contrary it is corroborated by them. To the question whether for security's sake the aborigines would not be compelled to aggregate, we must also return a negative answer. War was not the normal condition of the Australian blacks.[460]And I have not been able to find any statement of collective methods of organized defence.
To sum up our results in a few words: the territorial division points only exceptionally and problematically, even in these exceptional cases, to possession of land by single families. The territorial unit, called by us Local Group, although varying in its extent according to the locality, appears to consist usually of several families. But these families in their turn live usually either in one smaller group, numbering two or three families or, exceptionally, one only. In more fertile tracts, near big rivers and fertile coastal districts, the number of families living in permanent contact appears to be greater; in the extensive arid areas the number of families grouped together seems to be rather small.