File:The history of mankind (1896) (14740963526).jpg

Identifier: historyofmankind01ratz (find matches)
Title: The history of mankind
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904 Butler, Arthur John, 1844-1910
Subjects: Ethnology Anthropology
Publisher: London, Macmillan and co., ltd. New York, The Macmillan co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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s kind that we find on the Dawson two groups named respectivelyafter the white and black cockatoos ; whence arose the comical misconceptionthat the West Australians were named after the most important article of theirdiet. About the North-west Cape, the Kobong system is said not to be found.Alleged caste distinctions are almost certainly to be referred to this exogamictribal organisation. It is reported that at Port Essington, besides the division ofthe tribe into families, there exists another strict division into three castes.According to Earl, the first claims descent from the fire, the second from thesoil, while the name of the third means net-makers, which points to Kobong.Wilson quotes similar names as existing about Raffles Bay. In spite of theirstrict separation these divisions have equal rights and are outwardly quite similar.Among many tribes no custom is held more sacred than exogamy. The leasttrace of blood-relationship is a bar to marriage, and the first question asked in
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Melanesian Axes, Clubs, and Hammers.(i, 2) Clubs from the DEntrecasteaux Islands. (3-5) Adzes from Eastern New Guinea. (6) Birds-head Clubfrom New Caledonia. (7) Clubs from the Moresby Islands. (8-10) Hammers from Western New Guinea.(11) Club with green-stone disk, from Eastern New Guinea. (12-14) Adzes and axe with blades of iron,shell, and stone, from the Anchorites and Admiralty Islands. (British Museum.) (1, 2, 7-14) from theChristy Collection. 2 B THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA 371 courtship refers to this. If the couple unite in spite of it, their union is regardedas lawless ; and even punished with death, as incest, by the Australians, who inmatters of morality are lax enough. It has also been proposed to refer to anexogamic origin the Ngia-Ngiampe ceremony, to be mentioned presently, thoughthis is otherwise explicable. Yet it is a fact that it is employed when there is awish to prevent marriage between members of different tribes. But its chiefpurpose is no doubt of anoth

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