POST 4

Aranda

    The Aranda live in the desert areas of central Australia. They have mainly occupied the relatively well-watered mountainous areas of this desert region, although several groups, particularly around the northern, eastern, and southern fringes of the Aranda-speaking area, have very extensive sandhill regions within their territories.

Kin relations and Family relations

 

In certain respects, descent is cognatic; in others it is ambilineal, but with a patrilineal bias. People regard themselves as part of a single, territorially based, cognatic group, descended from 1 or more common ancestors, but for certain purposes they also recognize separate lines of inheritance through males and females, often affording a kind of priority to agnation.

The Aranda have given their own name to a kinship type in which marriage is enjoined with a classificatory mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter. 

A recognized rule is that when a woman marries a man she becomes his absolute property, with the right to treat her as his slave, and to beat her as he likes until she conforms to his wishes. Relatives rarely interfere; when they do, several join in and the issue may be a battle royal. This is very different than how wives are seen in American where in most cases the husband fears the wife generally since she has final say.

Marriages were normally arranged between families on a promise system, although the system has been fading up to the present time.

Children are not required to obey any but their individual fathers, and tribal uncles. They are usually accustomed to discipline and obedience. A recognized rule is that when a woman marries a man she becomes his absolute property, with the right to treat her as his slave, and to beat her as he likes until she conforms to his wishes. Relatives rarely interfere; when they do, several join in and the issue may be a battle royal. Many women, and most of the youths, live in fear of the old men, whose word is law; and summary punishment is administered in the form of a hard blow with the first stick that can be laid hands on.

The Aranda system is regarded as one of the main types of Australian kinship systems and is well known. The prohibit marriage between cross-cousins. For example, a man regards and treats his female cross-cousin as a sister, avoiding direct communication with, or reference to her.

 

Elkin, A. P. “Kinship in South Australia (Continued).” Oceania 10, no. 2 (1939): 196–234. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40327736.

Chewings, Charles. 1936. “Back in the Stone Age: The Natives of Central Australia.” In . Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson, limited. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=oi08-039.

Basedow, Herbert. 1925. “The Australian Aboriginal.” In . Adelaide: F. W. Preece and sons. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=oi08-007.

Morton, John. 1996. “Culture Summary: Aranda.” New Haven, Conn.: HRAF. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=oi08-000.