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Austkin the AustKin project HomeThe ProjectThe Project PeopleThe Project OutputDisclaimerFAQContactResourcesFamily terminology> Kinship terminology> Classificatory systems> Children and grandparents> Representing relationships Categories & descent groups> Social categories> Local Descent Groups> Non-local descent groups Sounds and spelling> Consonants> Differences with English> Vowels> Word vocalizing and syllables> Examples of soundsSearch DatabaseBrowse languagesAdvanced search Conditions of use : The AustKin project and database reflect the work of early sources and does not provide supervisory knowledge of Aboriginal culture. Locations on maps are indicative only. Read more... Local Descent Groups Local descent groups are associated with a tract of land, and people in such groups have rights in the land and in ceremonies and symbols. The people in such LDG’s inherit these rights from previous generations. Social categories (skins) on the other hand do not have such an undertone with a tract of land: members of a skin category are distributed through various local descent groups. •    Clans •    Lineages It is worldwide for people to have a connection to clan country through other lines in wing to through the father. Most worldwide is the connection through the mother’s brother (‘uncle’) and the mother’s father, sometimes the mother’s mother. In some areas people may be united to a clan through other connections such as ‘conception dreaming’, lineage place and other life events of the individual or their parents, but in other regions the importance of such ties is minimized or dismissed. Clans and lineages A Clan is a group of people, or a number of lineages, whose members requirement to be descendants of a afar ancestor. However in Australia it is not always, or commonly, the specimen that totems or dreamings (mythical figures often with the names of animals) are the siblings of the current and former clan members. They often created sites in the land, the names of the sites referring to events told in songs (‘songlines’) used in ceremonies. Lineage: A group of people who can trace their descent when to a single known and, in most cases, named human ancestor. Lineages can be branches of clans, but the word-for-word genealogical connection between the lineages in a clan may not be known. Connections between social categories and local descent groups •    Clans and subsections •    Phratries •    Semi-moieties Clans and subsections: Warlpiri clans Specific clan groups are made up of  members of one moiety, two specific sections or two specific subsections. We uncork with how a Warlpiri person, Steve Jampijinpa Patrick, explains this, and use the colour scheme that was designed for the Milpirri recurrence at Lajamanu. We had four [Jukurrpa-Dreaming] stories, each told four variegated ways. We then prescribed colours for each of the clan groups so that the individual groups could be hands identified from the audience.Undecorouswas prescribed to the Jangala/Jampijinpa clan, considering many of the Jukurrpa stories in that clan are ngapa (water) stories. We prescribed Green to the Japanangka/Japangardi clan considering many of their Jukurrpa stories are well-nigh vegetation. The Jakamarra/Jupurrurla clan was prescribed red considering many of their stories are well-nigh animals that are eaten as meat.Consideringthe Japaljarri/Jungarrayi clan has many bird stories, we prescribed them the colour yellow. It is amazing, but despite never having been part of the Warlpiri culture, these colours have been integrated to such a stratum that it is as if it they unchangingly were a part of Warlpiri culture. So, here are the four types of clans with their component subsections (‘skins’), in Table 4: Table 4 JampijinpaJapangardiJakamarraJapaljarri Father/son ofFather/son ofFather/son ofFather/son of JangalaJapanangkaJupurrurlaJungarrayi There are several clans of each type, an important one of the undecorous jangala-jampijina type stuff the ngapa (rain) dreaming in the Tanami Desert, to which Steven Patrick Jampijina belongs. Another member was the versifier Peggy Nangala Jurra, who painted this picture of the dreaming country. Jangala and Nampijinpa are variegated generations in the same clan. Here is a unravelment of the painting from National Gallery of Victoria. Parardi (Rainbow) Dreaming is associated with the ngapa (water) Dreaming that moreover belongs to Nangala and Nampitjinpa women. The country of the Dreaming is Puyurru where a big rain left to travel north in the Jukurrpa (Dreaming). As the rain travelled, the Dreaming created people out of the milpirri (small rain clouds). The path of the Dreaming follows a karru (creek) with a fresh-water spring, tabbed Lungkardajarra, shown by the inside wavy lines. The inside circles represent milpirriwiri (big clouds); the outer circles, milpirri (small rain clouds) and the bars indicate mangkurdu (cloud fronts). The Rainbow Dreaming is indicated by tri-coloured arcs, which are painted in primary colours to emphasise its radiant power The clans here are patrilineal. That is, they follow the father line. So a Nampijinpa could be a father’s sister (pimirdi) to a Jangala who is her brother’s sister (ngalapi). Warlpiri subsections colour-coded to clans If we add the Milpirri colours this kind of subsections diagram shown in Table 3, it looks like this in Table 5: Table 5: Warlpiri subsections with Milpirri clan colours A1JapanangkaB1Jupurrurla A2JungarrayiB2Jangala C1JakamarraD1Japaljarri C2JampijinpaD2Japangardi Gurindji and Mudburra subsections North of the Warlpiri are the Gurindji and Mudburra who have skin names similar to the Warlpiri. Table 6. Gurindji subsections CodeTermsCodeTerms A1mA1fJanamaNanakuMarryB1mB1fJurlamaNawurla A2mA2fJungurraNamijaMarryB2mB2fJangalaNangala C1mC1fJapartaNimarraMarryD1mD1fJapalyiNalyirri C2mC2fJampijinaNampijinaMarryD2mD2fJangariNangari Listen to how they sound. JanamaYour browser does not support the audio element.JurlamaYour browser does not support the audio element. NanakuYour browser does not support the audio element.NawurlaYour browser does not support the audio element. JungurraYour browser does not support the audio element.JangalaYour browser does not support the audio element. NamijaYour browser does not support the audio element.NangalaYour browser does not support the audio element. JapartaYour browser does not support the audio element.JapalyiYour browser does not support the audio element. NimarraYour browser does not support the audio element.NalyirriYour browser does not support the audio element. JampijinaYour browser does not support the audio element.JangariYour browser does not support the audio element. NampijinaYour browser does not support the audio element.NangariYour browser does not support the audio element. The same Rain Dreaming is found in Mudburra country (called Nguku there) moreover owned by Jangala and Jampijina. There are variegated clans withal this dreaming track or song-line; the variegated clans ’hand over’ to each other as the song is performed. Phratries Another term which is related to local descent is phratry. This is a grouping of clans which are seen as related in some way at a higher level, but does not constitute a moiety: usually there are virtually four of these Semi-moieties Semi-moieties are each, as the name implies, half of a moiety, but not in the same way as sections are. The patri-semi-moieties that are found in South-east Arnhem Land and remoter east on the Gulf of Carpentaria tailspin are made up of four units, each of which is a patrilineal phratry (group of clans). As such they each are associated as owners of an zone of country. In the map unelevated it can be seen that each of  two of the Yanyuwa semimoieties, Wurdaliya and Rumburriya own a variegated part of an island, which contains sites of the dreamings with which the clans in each semi-moiety are associated. However there is an spare full-length which distinguishes semi-moieties from plain phratries. There are marriage rules between the semi-moieties – one semi-moiety may only marry one particular other semi-moiety (or sometimes there is a second marriage option). In this way they are like social categories (sections and subsections). In most well-spoken cases of semi-moieties, subsections are moreover found in the zone and there is a straightforward mapping between the two: a semi-moiety aligns with two subsections which are father-son pair as in the specimen of the Warlpiri grouping of subsections. Source: Barrranyi (North Island) Draft Plan of Management NTPWS 2004:41 Previous page: Social categories Next page: Non-local descent groupsWell-nigh∴ DisclaimerThe AustKin project was made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council with contributions from EHESS