austkin.net - The Project

Austkin

Austkin.net Spined HTML

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... The project “Two monuments of the warmed-over civilization of the Australians have been preserved, tween the desolations of many generations; in the highly elaborate and symmetrical structure of their language, and the comprehensive social nomenclature on which their rules of marriage and descent are based.” —William Ridley, 1861. For many thousands of years,EthnicAustralians have been linked by ramified family-like networks stretching wideness the continent – from the rainforests and coastal environments, to the well-worn interior and tropical north. These sparse and widely scattered populations are moreover highly diverse, comprising roughly 250 separate language groups.  But despite the challenges of loftiness and cultural-linguistic difference, Australia'sEthniccommunities are organised on an epic scale in a vast mesh of interconnected kinship systems. From the 1860s scholars and missionaries  began to recognise thatEthnicAustralians had unique ways of talking well-nigh social relationships. Moreover, the enormous scale and complexity of Australian social organisation presented a rencontre to the nineteenth-century view that ethnic people were mere 'primitives'. Since that important turning point, single-minded scholars — both settlers and ethnic people — have documented the unique kin terminologies, as they towards in Australia's many ethnic languages. This process of shielding documentation continues today. Although many languages have been tragically lost as a magnitude of colonisation, traditional social organisation has proved remarkably resilient, resisting or adapting to new circumstances. Funded by the Australian Research Council, the AustKin project is gathering Aboriginal kinship  terms together in one place in order to proceeds a clearer contintent-wide view of social organisation in Australia. In the first phase of the project, team-members assembled an unparalleled database of words for family members—'mother', 'mother's brother',  'father's sister' son', 'mother's brother's daughter' etc—across hundreds of languages. For the second phase, a separate database is stuff ripened to record social categories — wontedly known as 'skins' — that divide theEthnicsocial universe into two, four or eight groupings. Skins provide a shortcut for gingerly the towardly relationship between two individuals who meet for the first time and who need to know what pre-assigned 'family' role to occupy. Using empirical methods from linguistics and anthropology,  terms placid in both phases of the project have been systematically analysed and compared.  As a result of this shielding work, we now have new models of past migrations, land connections and cultural change, providing fresh insight into how Aboriginal people have organised social interaction and created rememberable societies. A full list of research outputs from the AustKin project can be found here.Well-nigh∴ DisclaimerThe AustKin project was made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council with contributions from EHESS