The Native Tribes of North Central Australia: Chapter III. Certain Ceremonies Concerned with Marriage Together with a Discussion Regarding the Same

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1 The operation is conducted with a stone knife and the operator who is, except in the southern Arunta, a man who is Ipmunna to the girl, carries with him one of the small wooden Churinga called Namatwinna with which before operating he touches the lips of the vulva, so as to prevent too great a loss of blood. When the operation has been performed, the Ipmunna, Unkulla and Unawa have access to her in the order named. This ceremony is often performed during the progress of an Altherta or ordinary corrobboree when, during the day time, the men habitually assemble at the corrobboree ground. When it is over the woman's head is decorated, by the Ipmunna man who operated, with head bands and tufts of Alpita, 2 the neck with necklaces, the arms with bands of fur string, and her body is painted all over with a mixture of fat and red ochre. Thus decorated, she is taken to the camp of her special Unawa by the men who have taken part in the ceremony and who have meanwhile painted themselves with charcoal. 3 On the day following the husband will most likely—though there is no obligation for him to do so—send her to the same men, and after that she becomes his special wife, to whom no one else has right of access; though at times a man will lend his wife to a stranger as an act of courtesy, always provided that he belongs to the right class, that is, to the same as himself. After wearing the decorations for a few days, the woman returns them to her Ipmunna man.

By reference to the tables already given, it will be clearly seen that on this occasion men of forbidden groups have access to the woman. Suppose, for example, that she is a Purula. Her proper Unawa will be a Panunga man, and such an one is normally the only one with whom she may have

1 and bring in with you some undattha altherta” (down used for decorating during ordinary corrobborees). The Gammona then goes away, followed by the woman who has been previously told what to do by her husband. This woman is actually Mura to the Gammona, that is, one to whom under ordinary circumstances he may not even speak or go near, much less have anything like marital relations with. After the two have been out in the bush they return to the camp, the man carrying undattha and the woman following with green twigs, which the men will wear during the evening dance, tied round their arms and ankles. There will be perhaps two or three of these women present on each day, and to them any man present on the ground, except those already mentioned, may have access. During the day they sit near to the men watching but taking no part in the preparation of decorations. The natives say that their presence during the preparations and the sexual indulgence, which was a practice of the Alcheringa, prevents anything from going wrong with the performance; it makes it impossible for the head decorations, for example, to become loose and disordered during the performance. At evening the women are painted with red ochre by the men, and then they return to the main camp to summon the women and children to the corrobboree.

In connection with this subject, a curious custom concerned with messengers may be noticed here. In the case of the Urabunna tribe it is usual to send as messengers, when

1 has brought together, from various sources, facts relating to similar customs, and, while discussing the hypothesis of promiscuity from an adverse point of view, has endeavoured to explain them as due to various causes. These we may conveniently discuss, examining each briefly in the endeavour to ascertain whether it will or will not serve to explain the marriage customs as we find them in Australian tribes, of which those quoted above may be taken as typical examples. It must be understood that we are here simply dealing with this question so far as the evidence derived from these Australian tribes is concerned.

The first explanation offered is that in certain instances the practice is evidently associated with phallic worship, as, for example, when in the valley of the Ganges, the virgins had to offer themselves up in the temples of Juggernaut. This

1

A third hypothesis suggested to account for certain customs such as the “jus primae noctis,” accorded to chiefs and particular individuals, is that “it may be a right taken forcibly by the stronger, or it may be a privilege voluntarily given to the chief man as a mark of esteem; in either case it depends upon his authority.” 2 It will be generally admitted that here again no such explanation will account for the customs as met with amongst Australian tribes. In the first place, while the elder men are undoubtedly accorded certain privileges, there is not in any Australian tribe any one individual

1 Unless the leading man in any group stands in a particular relationship to the woman, he has no more right of access to her than the most insignificant man in the group.

A fourth hypothesis is suggested in connection with the right of access granted to men who have assisted the bridegroom in the capture of the woman. “In such cases the ‘jus primae noctis’ is a reward for a good turn done, or perhaps, as Mr. McLennan suggests, a common war right, exercised by the captors of the woman.” 2 There is undoubtedly much to be said in favour of this, but there are objections applying to it as to the second hypothesis dealt with. In the first place, so far as Australia is concerned, it is founded upon such vague statements as that quoted by Brough Smyth upon the authority of Mr. J. M. Davis. 3 Mr. Davis says, “when a young man is entitled to have a lubra, he organises a party of his friends, and they make a journey into the territories of some other tribe, and there lie in wait, generally in the evening, by a waterhole, where the lubras come for water. Such of the lubras as may be required are then pounced upon, and, if they attempt to make any resistance, are struck down insensible and dragged off. There is also this peculiarity, that in any instance where the abduction has taken place for the benefit of some one individual, each of the members of the party claims, as a right, a privilege which the intended husband has no power to refuse.”

Before it is safe, or indeed possible, to draw any conclusion from this, we require to know exactly who the men were, that is in what relationship they stood to the man whom

1 Such

1 Further than this, while he has no actual right of access to any woman, except his own special Unawa woman or women, there are times, as, for example, during special ceremonies, or when he is visiting a distant group, when a woman is lent to him, but that woman must be one who is

1 has referred in his work to what he calls “the pretended group-marriages” of the Australians. In the case of the Urabunna there is no pretence of any kind, and exactly the same remark holds true of the neighbouring Dieri tribe.

The matter can be expressed clearly in the form of a diagram used by Mr. Fison in explaining the marriage system of the Dieri tribe: 2

It must be remembered, of course, that any one woman may be Piraungaru to a larger number of men than the two who are represented in the diagram. The relation of Piraungaru is established between any woman and men to whom she is Nupa—that is, to whom she may be lawfully married

1 “Having now examined all the groups of social phenomena adduced as evidence for the hypothesis of promiscuity, we have found that, in point of fact, they are no evidence. Not one of the customs alleged as relics of an ancient state of indiscriminate cohabitation of the sexes or ‘communal marriage’ presupposes the former existence of that state,” and further on he says: 2 “It is not, of course, impossible that, among some people, intercourse between the sexes may have been almost promiscuous. But there is not a shred of genuine evidence for the notion that promiscuity ever formed a general stage in the social history of mankind.”

It need scarcely be pointed out how totally opposed this conclusion of Mr. Westermarck's is to that arrived at by other workers, and we think there can be little doubt but that Mr. Westermarck is in error with regard to the question of group marriage amongst the Australian natives.

Footnotes

93:1 As this ceremony has important bearings upon the question now under discussion, it is dealt with here; but it must be remembered that it is, strictly speaking, an initiation ceremony, equivalent in the case of woman to that of sub-incision or pura-ariltha-kuma amongst the men.

93:2 Alpita is the name given to the tail tips of the rabbit-bandicoot (Peragale lagotis): they are constantly used for personal decoration.

93:3 It is worth noting that charcoal is specially used for decorative purposes, firstly in connection with magic, and secondly in connection with avenging parties.

97:1 The bush is a term used in Australia to denote country more or less covered with a growth of natural trees and shrubs.

100:1 The History of Human Marriage, pp. 51–133.

102:1 It may perhaps be advisable to point out that in many cases in which apparently women are lent (in the sense in which we use the word, which is the sense in which it is generally used in this connection) indiscriminately, a knowledge of details would show that this was not so. In regard to Australian tribes it is very difficult, in most cases, to find out anything like exact details from accounts already published, and general statements such as that a party of men have the privilege of access to a woman are valueless unless we know the exact conditions or relative status of the individual men and the woman. In the nine tribes examined by us we have found that intercourse of this nature is strictly regulated by custom.

102:2 Westermarck, op. cit., p. 78.

103:1 The term chief or even king of a tribe is not seldom used in writings of a somewhat popular nature, which deal with Australia. Travellers will often find in up-country parts a native of appropriate age decorated with a brass plate whereon is inscribed some such legend as “King Billy, chief of the Gurraburra tribe.” The individual in question may possibly have been, though it is just as likely that he was not, the head of a local group or even tribe, but the natives have no term which can be correctly rendered by the word “chief.”

103:2 Westermarck, op. cit., p. 76.

103:3 Aborigines of Victoria, vol. ii., p. 316.

105:1 Since the above was written we have seen the essays by Professor Karl Pearson dealing with the same subject, in his work The Chances of Death. In these Mr. Pearson has used the term “fossil,” but though the term “rudimentary custom” has the disadvantage of length, we prefer to retain it as it appears to us to draw attention to a striking analogy.

106:1 By lawfully marry we mean that though the woman may be betrothed to another man, he would not break any tribal law by marrying her. If the woman belonged to a different local group from his own, and he obtained her by one of the recognised methods of charming, then the members of his own group would assist him in retaining her, whereas if he obtained by charming any woman of a forbidden class, then, not only would he receive no help from his own group, but they would either put him to death themselves, or else they would request some neighbouring group to do so.

109:1 Op. cit., p. 95, footnote.

109:2 Classificatory System of Relationship, Bril. Ass. Adv. Sci., Oxford, 1894, p. 360.

110:1 Op. cit., p. 113.

110:2 Op. cit., p. 133.