Aborigines Laws Of Kinship

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Aborigines Laws of Kinship The kinship system of the Aboriginal culture is a system that determines how people relate to each other and their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to each other, business and land. The kinship system determines who marries who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and behavior patterns with other kin. I will look at three of the Aboriginal laws that were set by the tribal elders of Roper River: Marriage Law: “If a person steals someone who is promised to another person in marriage, or if a person goes with a person of a different skin group, they should also be punished in our traditional way by the elders, and if necessary by physical punishment. We would also like traditional marriages to be recognized under European Law and for wives and husbands to have the rights and obligations which come from this recognition of traditional marriages. If at any time this recognition of traditional marriages, under European Law, creates conflict to our traditional culture, then these conflicts must be resolved by a meeting of our elders.” At first look this law took me back to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The marriage law pertaining to “skin groups” is so-called the ‘skin system’, a method of subdividing the society into named categories which are related to one another through the kinship system. According to the Aboriginal CLC (Central Land Council) the skin system is “a division into two groups: ‘sun side’ and ‘shade side’ exists across the region. Most language groups also use a section or subsection system with either four to eight ‘skin names’. An individual gains a ‘skin name’ upon birth based on the skin names of his or her parents, to indicate the section/subsection that he/she belongs to.” Aborigines Laws of Kinship 3 SECRET AND

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