TRIBAL ORGANIZATION IN EASTERN ARNHEM LAND

Abstract

'T'HE aboriginal peoples referred to in this paper are those occupying * the country to the north-east of a line running roughly from Cape Stewart on the north coast of Arnhem Land to Blue Mud Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and extending to the sea coast and the adjacent islands. The social organization of these peoples is marked by a very pronounced emphasis on the importance of the horde, each of which exists as an almost entirely independent unit. These hordes are very numerous ; some of them are very small, and there is definite evidence that several of them have actually become extinct, at least in so far as their patrilineal descent as a separate unit is concerned. With the few exceptions mentioned below, each of these hordes, no matter how small, has its own particular dialect. In many cases the dialectal difference is small, and in at least one instance would appear to be consciously artificial. The two moieties into which the aboriginal society is divided are known as Yiritcha and Dua respectively, and these names are used without variation throughout the area indicated. Each horde is exclusively Yiritcha or Dua, as the case may be, and every man obtains his wife from some other horde of the opposite moiety. The two moieties are divided into eight subsections, four Yiritcha and four Dua, and the prevailing form of totemism includes the definite relationship of all members, both male and female, of each subsection (mar Ik), with some particular bird or animal, which is known by the individual as his or her dguyoin. These dgurjoin have, as far as I am able to discover, no association with totem centres. Every member of the same subsection possesses the same dguyoin, irrespective of the horde to which he belongs.