"good to eat"

provide ritual and social solidarity for a community. Challenged evidence

"good to think"

provide "complementary oppoistion" to a human group

the actual totems are arbitrarily selected

Oldest tools

(50,000 years)

1. Digging stick: collecting roots and small animals by women

2. Wooden spear: used by men in hunting

3. Firestick: drives off game, keeps the country open for travel, burn off brush and encourage growth of preferred food

1. Estate groups: also known as clans or lineage

2. Other criteria that divides groups: totems, dream sites, and natural objects

1. Gender: social role based on biological sex

2. Generation: age groups

3. Consanguinity: relationship through blood

4. Affinity: relationship by marriage

1. Helps organize society by dividing people into signifcant social groups.

2. Totemic estate groups or clans organize the society by defining two things:

a. Potential marriage partners

b. Rights to spiritual proptery (estates)

1. Identify possible marriage partners

2. Establish associations to totemic estate groups

Newer innovative tools

(5,000 years)

1. Stone points at end of stick

2. Dingo: assist in hunts

3. Spear thrower

1. Wife bestowal: ego + WF

2. Woman control their own reproduction and family size through infanticide

1. aborigines are polygamous (multiple spouses) and polygynous (multiple wives)

2. this leaves a shortage of women

3. shortage is minimized if men marry younger and younger wives

4. some anthropologists believe this lease to a male gerontocracy

1. eurpeans who setteled australia in 1788 gave aborigines no claim to their land

2. there was massive genocide of aborigines and their culture

3. by 1850 reserves to protect aborigines on missions and farms

4. political efforts and global support let to aboriginal land rights act of 1976

2 rules of kinship:

(kinship chart)

1. exogamous marriage - cross cousins

2. patralineal descent

The Case of the Tiwi

(northwest islands of Australia)

1. introduction of europeans (portugues raided their islands for people to be used as slaves)

2. deamnd for their women by Japanese

3. purchase of tiwi women by missionaries

4. consequences of these outside influences on marriage/gender control

5. consequences of signing of aboriginal land rights act of 1976 given outside influences.

1. sexual reproduction

2. for biological reproduction

1. their is inequality between different age groups

2. age rankings prevent permanant exclusion from resources and power

a.elders hold ritual knowledge, that they will eventually share with the young.

1. traditionalists

2. revisionists

3. alternative view: forages are not all alike

4. conclusion: modern foragers are different from stone-age foragers but can teach us about egalitarian relations in foraging economy

1. your parents are of the clan

2. born on the estate

3. spouse is a member

4. parent died on the estate

5. occupied it for a long time

How many people does a band hold?

What is is made up of?

25-50 people

low density

A band is made up of several clans

A kinship group descending from a totem

(totemic estates)

Animal diet from different geographical regions

Desert:

Coast:

Desert: lizards

Coast: shellfish and fish

Draw a kinship chart 

Ego (male): blue

FF=FM                    MF=MM

FZH=FZ      FB=FBW   D=M   MZH=MZ    MB=MBW

   PC   PC    EGO    PC   PC   CC   CC

Mother

Wife's Mother

allowed them to regain title to their lands

symbolic victory for the preservation of their culture

birth mother and all women from mother's lineage/descent group and mother's generation

division of aboriginal society to help reduce the complexity of the society

membership assigned through the father in aborigine society

encourage cooperation between the two groups through rules in ritual activies

every household controls its own production and consumption

every household has adequate food

production for use value

exchange is reciprocal

kin-based

no hierarchical structures

no central head/authority

decisions occur by household or community heads

markings that stretch across the land for hundreds of miles, over territory occupied by different clans. 

created by totemic ancestors

offspring of the oppoisite-sex siblings of their parents

a. these are children of their mother's brother or father's sister

b. cross cousins are "exogamous", so ARE potential marriage partners

offspring of the same-sex siblings of their parents

a. children of their mother's sister or father's brother

b. in the same moiety as ego, so ARE NOT potential marriage partners

c. Relations are "endogamous" (inside the family)

provide a continuing link between totemic ancestors and the people

sites help define territorial boundaries and regulates use of land

provide a spiritual connection between individuals of given clans and their Dreamings

provides cultural rules for behavior

ex: who to marry, ritual expectations by gender

social categories that define specific relationships between people in the society and serve as guides for social behavior

reflect relationships in the nuclear family

supports 500 people to survive without any help in a given enviroment

requires knowledge for identifying and processing foods, techniques for hunting and gathering and information for manufacturing and using tools

flexible in organizing their labor force, and selecting speices and locations

they only take 4-5 hours a day to obtain and process adequate food

Low birth rates and slow child growth in modern forages, suggest food shortages

Aborigines had encountered farming and herding from New Guineans, but never adopted. They preferred to horde "time" than food.

to maintain wide access of resources over territories by accessing their kinship ties and other social networks

security over the long run is the key survival goal