| Transcriber's Note | Table I a and the Arunta: Eight-class Table were printed on fold-outpages. These have been split into sections (3 and 2 sections,respectively) to fit within the display boundaries. Each of these tables has a linkto a scanned copy of the original table. The original book had a number of words with inconsistant hyphenation orspelling, as well as a small number of typographical errors. These havebeen maintained in this version and marked, with thecorrected text shown in the popup. A list of theinconsistencies and errors is found at the end of the present text. |
The Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series is supervised byan Editorial Committee consisting of William Ridgeway, M.A.,F.B.A., Disney Professor of Archaeology, A. C. Haddon, Sc.D.,F.R.S., University Lecturer in Ethnology, M. R. James, Litt. D.,F.B.A., Provost of King's College and C. Waldstein, Litt. D.,Slade Professor of Fine Art.
KINSHIP ORGANISATIONS
AND
GROUP MARRIAGE
IN
AUSTRALIA
BY
NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS, M.A.
Diplomé de l'École des Hautes-Études,
Corresponding Member of the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, etc.
CAMBRIDGE:
at the University Press
1906
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
C. F. CLAY, Manager,
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
[All Rights reserved.]
DEDICATED
TO
MISS C. S. BURNE,
WHO FIRST GUIDED MY STEPS
INTO THE PATHS OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
PREFACE.
It is becoming an axiom in anthropology that what is needed is notdiscursive treatment of large subjects but the minute discussion ofspecial themes, not a ranging at large over the peoples of the earthpast and present, but a detailed examination of limited areas. This workI am undertaking for Australia, and in the present volume I deal brieflywith some of the aspects of Australian kinship organisations, in thehope that a survey of our present knowledge may stimulate furtherresearch on the spot and help to throw more light on many difficultproblems of primitive sociology.
We hav