AUSTRALIA - Aboriginal Anthropology I

The Australian landscape and the surrounding natural features were some of the things that
shape Aboriginal mythology which, in turn, had become projections of "the time long past".
In Aboriginal society, the women were responsible for extracting, used and cooked bush foods
while older women transmitted knowledge about bush lore to younger women and children.
The men and women together were both responsible for undertaking subsistence activity to
support their family.
From an early age, children were encouraged to learn about bush lore. For boys, there were
many opportunities to become familiar with territories other than his own since at
circumcision he is taken to tribes other than his own. Girls, however, were primarily restricted
to the family camp. Fathers sustained authority over their children, such as in relation to
marriage arrangements, but it was generally the mother and the grandmother who had the
primary right to discipline their children. Women also had rituals of their own and did not
regard men's ceremonies as a privilege from which they were excluded.

Marriage

Until on the threshold of marriage, young women had little contact with the group into which
they were destined to marry some day - that is, the affinal group to which the woman was
betrothed or promised. After the age of nine years, or possibly later, the young woman was
handed over to her future husband and sleep at his fire side from time to time. In this respect,
the young girls generally aged between nine and thirteen were not required to participate in
sexual relation with their future husbands until they were beyond puberty.
Transition from childhood to adolescence and preparation for marriage were dealt with in
some detail by Aboriginal women. Younger Aboriginal women were well aware of what was
involved with sex and sexual intercourse. At tone time, certain Aboriginal tribes practised
introcision which was done by the old women. This was conducted when women wished to
hasten puberty, the ceremony being regarded as essentially desirable since a girl can then take
lovers. Ritual details were kept secret from men and often occurred as a counterpart to male
sub-incision. During the ritual, young women were told associated myths and acquired
additional esoteric knowledge about Aboriginal religion.
Personal ritual for women usually occurred before and after menstruation, which some men
feared because contact with a menstruating woman could cause sickness. Women had to
remain apart from their family camps for three to five days, where they were painted in red
ochre by female kin. Food taboos were observed during times of menstruation and pregnancy.
These taboos which restricted the consumption of bush food such as porcupine, snake, turkey
and barramundi were similar to those imposed on young men during initiation.

Indications that marriage was positive for women included economic reciprocity whereby the
betrothed man handed over gifts to the woman's parents from betrothal onwards. Betrothed
women, on the other hand, were not required to make any material sacrifices because their
intentions were less obvious. In some cases, young girls who were betrothed and married after
puberty had run away from their husbands because their husbands were too old or had
frightened them. They were usually sent back by their parents and, from all accounts, sought
lovers, one of whom they would eventually marry. Aboriginal marriages in general do not
allow freedom of choice in marriage partners. Indeed, out of the disputes, discontent,
reconciliations, and affection between those who are married, a relationship would seem to
emerge which has in it the elements of permanency and the advantages which have, in part,
been deduced, and in part, directly formulated by the people themselves. In fact, from
childhood onwards, men and women were expected to marry individuals of a certain
subsection or social classification, and that such an arrangement did not necessarily result in
the oppression of women. Anthropological studies suggest that Aboriginal people have a
desire to marry in accordance with the prescribed rules, although in some cases, elopements
did occur. In general, there was a recognized procedure in courtship, which could be initiated
by a woman or a man.
Most marriages were in accordance with the preferred model and monogamous unions were
the most consistent form of marriage. Polygamous unions, where two women were married to
one man, involved older men, although young stock boys occasionally had two wives, due
mainly to their role as employees on stations where they receive additional material resources,
such as tobacco, clothes, tools and food, giving them a wealth and prestige they would
otherwise not have known. Alternative marriages also existed which were connected to
kinship rather than to social subsection that normally regulated marriage.

Authority was vested collectively in a family group rather in particular individuals for social
arrangements such as marriage. This process also occurred with gifts exchange. How gifts
were provided by a man to his future in-laws formalize the union and distinguished it from a
casual liaison. Gift exchange also gave the man the right to take his wife away to his own
family resident in accordance with the rules of patrilocal resident. The man would also claim
any children that were born as his own. Soon after betrothal, the first gift such as hair-belt,
pearl-shell, spears, and axes were made. The mother of the girl received her share of these
because she exercised equal rights over her child. While gift exchange might seem to
exchange an element of compensation for the loss of a family member to the girl's parents, the
bond with relatives and country persisted after marriage. Indeed, the process surrounding
marriage ensured that the woman's family secured alliances with individuals in other hordes,
along with the right to visit them. The principles of matrilineal succession, such as inheritance
of knowledge and rights in land which were transmitted through women, were considered to
be significant because they predate ethnographic consideration of matrilineal affiliations to
land.

Rights and duties of women in marriage

Patrilocal residents produced one of the fundamental alterations in a woman's life when, after
marriage, she moved to her husband's country. In doing this, the woman did not lose her claim
to her father's country nor did the husband exert arbitrary rights over his wife as a moveable
piece of property. The women were free to move about in their husbands' territories, to forage
for food and came to know the sacred sites and stones for ceremonies aimed at ensuring the
maintenance of a plentiful and reliable food supply. These ceremonies were referred to as
increase ceremonies. In their daily life, the men had greater responsibility for ritual activity
with the women often being central to the performance of increased ceremonies carried out by
the old woman or women who were wives of the head men. On marriage, women's
relationships to others were widened to include an important set of reliable affinal kin. As
both wife and in-law, a married woman became the keeper of the hearth, gatherer of fire
woods, bearer of her own and her husband's burden, and has the right to own property. Upon
death, the property, such as billycan, digging stick, fighting stick, axe, knife, of women did
not revert to their husbands; it was either destroyed or distributed to the woman's relative.
Much of the discussion at "inter-tribal meetings" before the initiation of a boy concerned
remembering but not naming deceased relatives, and reconciling grievances, such as those
resulting from extra-marital affairs. There were also attempts to settle certain scores, such as
when a woman was attacked with a fighting stick by her sister because she had not prevented
an elopement. In this respect, authority, when yielded, was in the hands of those closely
connected with the individual involved. There was also a sharp distinction between illicit
affairs and promiscuity with the latter being dealt with by "contempt". No moral judgments
were made on the formation of new liaison and, once disputes were settled publicly, the new
marriage was accepted.

With regard to the affection between husband and wife and other kin's people, temporarily
disruption, such as adultery, were usually tolerated and/or resolved by the means described
above or by some form of material compensation to the aggrieved man or woman. On the
whole, there certainly seems to be present a bond of affection that manifested itself when
either husband or wife was in danger or ill. In some cases, men would sit for hours by their
sick wives, fetching water, providing shade and physical comfort. With regard to adult
authority over children, the common interest of women and men in children consolidated the
marital relationship. While children of both sexes inherited their father's country and dream
totems, education and discipline during childhood were largely in the hand of the mother. It is
perhaps worth noting that the mother received a share of the gifts distributed at the
circumcision and sub-incision of her son, and presents are handed over to her by her son-in-
law during his marriage to her daughter. Some of these be later passes on to her own relatives.
In Aboriginal society, there were many positive aspects to marriage for women. They acquired
more intimate relationships with the individual in other hordes together with the right to visit
them; the experience of grief and anxiety during the circumcision and sub-incision of sons
showed a woman to be someone of consequence. Marriage was unambiguously based on the
necessity of satisfying sexual, economic and social needs that were influenced by the cultural
environment. Women were not oppressed by marriage, which brought with it a certain status,
companionship, protection and settled existence that were sanctioned by all members of the
community.

The functions of women in the larger social groups

Women's part in wider social groupings can only be understood if their role in the economic,
kinship and political organisation were taken into account. The pervasive force of totemism
with all it ethical and religious implications provided some of the sanctions that underpinned
marriage, berthing ceremonies, puberty, death and the authority of both men and women. In
particular, totemism tied women and men into larger social groupings in both sacred and
profane activity. In this respect, both the men and women made the article they needed for
their own purposes. The women made fighting and digging sticks, necklaces and swag while
the men made their own spears for hunting, fishing and fighting, spear-throwers, boomerangs,
shields, necklaces and armbands. The women and men also undertook joint activities such as
spinning human hair into threads or belts, tassels and headband. Young boys, as part of
initiation, were taught to manufacture articles such as axes while after puberty, young girls
were taught by women to make digging and fighting sticks.

Economic transactions fulfilled kinship obligation and ensured an exchange of resources from
one region to another. This involved a chain of women and men as partners with the variety of
consanguineal, affinal and classificatory relatives. These exchanges occurred over distances of
up to 400 miles with some of the resources traded being shelled, wild honey, flower,
boomerang, shovel-nosed spears, red ochre, necklaces, and dresses. Under the system, the
partner would eventually receive the equivalent of what he or she had given previously with
conflict being resolved by the public airing of grievances and by the withdrawal of various
resources. Women and their role as members of a horde united women with their country and
it was both an economic and spiritual affiliation. Indeed, when the women dies, her bones will
find the resting place there. Also, it was the men who performed corroborees associated with
the cult-totem and these intensified the sentiment for the horde.

The women seemed to be just as desirous as the men, when the opportunity offered, of
visiting their horde country, the increase site, and resting place of the totemic ancestors. The
women seemed just as deeply convinced of the economic superiority of their territory over all
others, including event hose of their husbands. This sentiment probably springs from long
residents during childhood, knowledge of economic resources, sacred sites, myths, totemic
affiliations and kinship ties with other individuals who also belong to the country. A strong
bond existed among women, in part because they shared so many of their pursuits such as
foraging and hunting together. In such circumstances, focus and positive interests created the
conditions for a sense of shared identity among women, although there was also a great deal
of co-operation with their husbands and other male kin, especially in economic and social
matters.

The spiritual heritage of Aboriginal women

Women had the right to receive benefits from totemic ceremonies as these were first instituted
by the totemic ancestors for Aboriginal men and women. In this respect, totems were regarded
as not merely objects appropriated by Aboriginal groups but an expression of kinship with the
environment. They were fundamental to how the mythic beings created the earth and all it
contained in plant and animal forms. Myth that accounted for the inauguration of certain
customs all describe totem ancestors who stood in a kinship relation to each other and had
subsection names. Having performed their tasks, the totemic ancestors change into birds,
animals, reptiles and rocks.
The time long past when the world was created, in compass a variety of totemic beliefs. These
included "conception totems", "sub-section totems", "moiety totems", "dream totems", and
"cult totems" all of which provided connections between people and their environment
including various plants and animal species, and to the Dreaming. The conception totem was
identified as a manifestation of the affinity between people and nature; it had "developed out
of, and is determined by, the native belief about Narungani and spirit children".