Kinship
Kinship
Somewhere, Gellibrand gave his name, or exchanged names with a Woiwurrung known as Beruke. Beruke called himself Gellibrand ever after.[1] This should be understood in the light of universal rules of aboriginal kinship (skin). ‘Kinship is an integral part of the total social organization. People are sorted out, as it were, into categories, and these are indicated by the terminology used by any given tribe...Classificatory kinship prevails throughout aboriginal Australia.’[2] ‘Kinship is the pervasive organising principle. In all these activities individuals participate and are allocated various rights and duties vis-à-vis one another, as particular types or kinds of kin.
In a word, kin-class statuses are the elementary structures of Australian social life.’[3] Falkenberg’s study of Port Keats applies across Australia This can then be seen as mostly misunderstood, as maybe glimpsed in part, for what can now be understood as a form of kinship, of kinship in adaptation, even a reversal. Men, as Beruke, hoping that, seeing Europeans didn’t get ‘skin’, they, by adopting European ‘names’ might find a way to begin kinship understanding.
That is a cultural embrace of the other culture interpreted from within the limits of the prime (kinship) structures of the culture, where the skin-classificatory name of (kin) reciprocity and mutuality, is a prime indication of kinship brotherhood identity with Gellibrand. ‘Kinship is the basis of social relations, indicating the general range of behaviour expected in any given case. Everyone must be identified in this way. A person coming into a strange group for trading or ceremonial purposes is always allocated a kinship position.’[4] No doubt the Batman/Parramatta party communicated skin-names in the entreaty.
[1] See Appendix I. for a preliminary list of some Port Phillip ‘Skin-Name’-Kinship attempts
[2] Berndt, R.M. & C.H. The World of the First Australians pp 85
[3] Harold W Scheffler ~ Australian Kin Classification, Cambridge Uni Press Cambridge UK 1978 . pp 529 “... the categories by which the aboriginal peoples of Australia order their social lives are predominately kin categories. pp ix ‘ Australian social categories are, virtually exhaustively, kin categories. pp 524 ‘Originating in nuclear families and in the genealogical relationships among them, these statuses are extended to encompass and to order virtually all social relations within human communities of varying size. Beyond this they are extended metaphorically to encompass and to order social relations between human communities and the community of the Dreamtime beings. In this way, Australian cultures establish a moral community that embraces the cosmos.’ pp 530
[4] Berndt R.M. & C.H., The World of the First Australians page 68
Somewhere, Gellibrand gave his name, or exchanged names with a Woiwurrung known as Beruke. Beruke called himself Gellibrand ever after.[1] This should be understood in the light of universal rules of aboriginal kinship (skin). ‘Kinship is an integral part of the total social organization. People are sorted out, as it were, into categories, and these are indicated by the terminology used by any given tribe...Classificatory kinship prevails throughout aboriginal Australia.’[2] ‘Kinship is the pervasive organising principle. In all these activities individuals participate and are allocated various rights and duties vis-à-vis one another, as particular types or kinds of kin.
In a word, kin-class statuses are the elementary structures of Australian social life.’[3] Falkenberg’s study of Port Keats applies across Australia This can then be seen as mostly misunderstood, as maybe glimpsed in part, for what can now be understood as a form of kinship, of kinship in adaptation, even a reversal. Men, as Beruke, hoping that, seeing Europeans didn’t get ‘skin’, they, by adopting European ‘names’ might find a way to begin kinship understanding.
That is a cultural embrace of the other culture interpreted from within the limits of the prime (kinship) structures of the culture, where the skin-classificatory name of (kin) reciprocity and mutuality, is a prime indication of kinship brotherhood identity with Gellibrand. ‘Kinship is the basis of social relations, indicating the general range of behaviour expected in any given case. Everyone must be identified in this way. A person coming into a strange group for trading or ceremonial purposes is always allocated a kinship position.’[4] No doubt the Batman/Parramatta party communicated skin-names in the entreaty.
[1] See Appendix I. for a preliminary list of some Port Phillip ‘Skin-Name’-Kinship attempts
[2] Berndt, R.M. & C.H. The World of the First Australians pp 85
[3] Harold W Scheffler ~ Australian Kin Classification, Cambridge Uni Press Cambridge UK 1978 . pp 529 “... the categories by which the aboriginal peoples of Australia order their social lives are predominately kin categories. pp ix ‘ Australian social categories are, virtually exhaustively, kin categories. pp 524 ‘Originating in nuclear families and in the genealogical relationships among them, these statuses are extended to encompass and to order virtually all social relations within human communities of varying size. Beyond this they are extended metaphorically to encompass and to order social relations between human communities and the community of the Dreamtime beings. In this way, Australian cultures establish a moral community that embraces the cosmos.’ pp 530
[4] Berndt R.M. & C.H., The World of the First Australians page 68
posted by Wayne D Knoll | 5:00 PM
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