814 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



group do not logically follow out those of tbe antecedent group, as do 

 the terms used by savage and barbaric tribes in other parts of the 

 world collected and arranged by Dr. Morgan in his magnificent work 

 on systems of consanguinity and affinity. For instance, it is rare to 

 find that the terms of the filial group follow logically those of the pa- 

 rental group. As a general rule, the latter has departed farthest from 

 simplicity. The Murring list is a case in point. (See table.) Nor have 

 I found that the actual social status of any Australian tribe in the 

 present day can be inferred from an examination of the terms of rela- 

 tionship alone, hi all cases it is evident that the actual status of the 

 tribe is in advance of the status theoretically deducible from the terms 

 of relationship. This is significant and points to social development. 

 The most extreme case within my knowledge is that of the Kurnai j 

 and I have selected it partly for this reason, and partly because I am 

 better acquainted with the customs of this tribe than with those of any 

 other. It is a good example of the preservation of an archaic type 

 under changed conditions. 



In the Kurnai terms we have precisely the analogues of the Dieri; 

 but, as I have already pointed out, the Kurnai have no Pirauru prac- 

 tice, and indeed would look upon such a custom with horror. Never- 

 theless, as I have said, they did on occasions permit a license which to 

 my mind strongly points to its former existence with them as a custom. 

 Moreover, the terms given for the parental group point to such a form 

 of group marriage, and those for the filial group strengthen this infer- 

 ence. 



The Murring, in their tribal organization, their individual marriage 

 with a strong obligation of fidelity on the part of the wife, and their 

 agnatic descent, much resemble the Kurnai ; in fact, both these tribes 

 may be said to stand nearly upon the same social level, but the for- 

 mer has relationship terms considerably more differentiated than those 

 of the latter. Yet in these the filial group still retains the extreme 

 simplicity found in the relations of tribes who have group marriage 

 still actually existing, the only difference being that the Murring terms 

 for "father's brother" and "mother's sister's husband" are differen- 

 tiated from that for " father," as also are the terms for " mother's sister" 

 and "father's brother's wife" from that for "mother." 



In both the Kurnai and the. Murring tribes, however, there is a dis- 

 tinction made between the terms of the parental group which is worth 

 noting as indicating severally two processes of differentiation. While 

 the Murring have separate terms to distinguish the father, the father's 

 brother, and the mother's sister's husband, who, under the Pirauru prac- 

 tice of the Dieri, may ail be married in the group to the same woman, 

 the Kurnai make no distinction between these terms excepting by add- 

 ing the word "brebba" to the term implying paternity. The "own 

 father" is Mungan, while the father's brother and the mother's sister's 



