Aborigine Social Organization and Family Life

The Aborigine  social system can be seen as extremely complex, but incredibly organized. There are three different ways that it is structured: Physical and Geographical structuring, Religious and Totemic structuring, and finally, Social structuring.

Physical and Geographical structure can be explained from the top down. The largest group of Aborigines are known as tribes which can consist of about 500 hundred people. These people do not all necessarily live in the same area however. From this large tribe, bands of 10- 20 individuals are created that include families and extended families. These bands change from day to day as different hordes or hunting groups are created. These groups rely on each other to provide shelter, food, and company. These hordes or bands get their name from an outside, non-aborigine observer. The aborigines form these groups based on clans, totemic group or skin name.

When it comes to Religious and Totemic Structure, it can get complicated because there can be many crossovers and it can become difficult to differentiate between groups. The basic structure consists of two groups called moieties. These moieties divide the tribe based on connections made with different animals, plants, and the environment. An individual is born into a moiety and influences marriage practices as you must marry outside of your moiety, but always remain true to your original moiety. Finally, each individual is divided into groups based on connections to an object called a totem. The totem can come from an animal or plant or piece of nature. These objects are typically related to a person with respect to their ancestors.

The final structure is that from a social aspect. The aborigine people follow a kinship people and follow the rule that everyone is related in some way. In terms of European and Western terms, mother, father, sister, brother do not even begin the cover the different relationships that are formed among these people. They have over 70 different terms used to describe their relationship with another. These relationships determine what kind of obligations and how one should act around each other. However, they all still understand who their biological family is, but still has the support of the entire community.

Family is very important to the Aborigines, as they believe that they are all family in some way. The biggest "family" is ones clan. Each clan has its own name and territory, but often live in vicinity with other tribes to keep marriages together. It is tradition for the husband to reside in his clan, however the wife always belongs to the clan of her father. It would be like a couple in the United States getting married, and the wife keeping her surname.

Family dynamics have changed significantly as a man used to have on average 2-4 wives and sometimes up to 10. Today's aborigines typically have only one wife. A family that lives together can consist of a wife and kids and sometimes a mans parents and in laws. There is a mother in law rule, which states that a man or woman cannot directly communicate to their mother in law. Instead, they must talk using a third person. This rule is to avoid conflict that could arise. The Elders of the family are treated with the up most respect, as they are the storytellers educating the village of the past and present as well as giving advice for the future.

Stories are used by the aborigines to educate children about life as well as entertain them. They can also be used to know how and when to find certain foods, learn about people's heritages and different laws. Also to teach of the past and the origins of where they came from and how they came to be. However, some stories are considered sacred, and are not shared with everyone, only those who have been "initiated" into a certain level of life.

Aborigine children are very innovative and resourceful and make their own toys, and create ways to entertain themselves. They create different things, from boomerangs, spears, boats, model airplanes, torches, and even telephones. The aborigine people are known for their string games that represent people or ideas as a way of expressing themselves. An example of the string game is shown below.

There is a "Stolen Generation" of aborigine children that were taken from the late 1800's to 1969 in an attempt to pull them from their culture and have them raised in a western or European sense. Over one hundred thousand children were stolen from their families and one of three things happened. They were either put in in a government run institution, adopted by "white" families, or became foster children of "white"families. 

When the practice finally ended in 1969, and a program called Link UP was created as a support group for this generation to learn about all the customs, culture, heritage, and names that they never got the chance to learn about. Because, they had little knowledge of how their life could have been, it was difficult to find the families on this lost generation.

References

Australianmuseum.net.au,2012Family-AustralianMuseum.http://australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-family, accessed June 4 , 2015.

Splash.abc.net.au,2015TheStringFiguresOfYirrkala.http://splash.abc.net.au/digibook/-/c/619169/the-string-figures-of-yirrkala, accessed June 4 , 2015.

Welch,David2015AboriginalCulture-TraditionalLife-SocialOrganisation.Aboriginalculture.Com.Au. http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/socialorganisation.shtml, accessed June 4 , 2015.