AUSTRALIAN GROUP RELATIONS. 815 



husband are Brebba inungan ; that is to say, "the other father." This 

 distinction, however, is rarely used iu ordinary parlance, though it 

 conies out when particular inquiry is made as to the relationship. 



VI. — THE FRATERNAL RELATIONS. 



The class divisions, viewed in their Pirauru relation, produce two 

 marital groups, and, as a necessary consequence, they also produce pa- 

 rental and filial groups. The Pirauru relation also creates, as a matter 

 of course, a group relation between the children of the Piraurus. It 

 ought to be found, and it is found, that the children of the Pirauru 

 group recognize one another as brothers and sisters. Moreover, all the 

 children of any given ISToa are brothers and sisters of the Pirauru group 

 to which that Noa belongs. But when, in any particular part of that 

 group, a man habitually cohabits with his Xoa and with a Pirauru, and 

 the children of the two women are brought up together, Mr. Gason tells 

 me that there is a recognition in this family of a superiority in the chil- 

 dren of the former over those of the latter. This fact is of the very 

 greatest importance, for it brings us to the dawning of birthright. 



The fraternal group, as shown in the class divisions, embraces all 

 those on the same level in a generation who are of the same class name, 

 but more especially all those who are of the same totem, which is 

 nearer to the individual than is the class. The "totems-men" succor 

 one another as a matter of course in all tribes in which, as in the Dieri, 

 the social organization is vigorous. Where, however, it has been super- 

 seded by the social organization, as among the Kuruai, it is the mem- 

 bers of the local group who aid each other, and this boud is strength- 

 ened by the far-reaching relationships in this tribe, such, for instance, 

 as that of "brother" In all these cases the individual recognizes and 

 carries out the obligation laid upon him by the group of which he is a 

 member. 



As it seems to me, the division of the community into two primary 

 classes and lesser divisions has evidently been brought about with in- 

 tention* to prevent those connections between brother and sister, and 

 other near relations, which are looked upon by the blacks with the ut- 

 most abhorrence. The prohibition extends beyond the children of the 

 same parents, and prevents the union of those who are of the same 

 class name or totem. The group relations which, as I have shown, 

 spring naturally out of the class divisions and their laws, also forbid 

 the marriage of all who are within the fraternal relations. But in the 

 less advanced tribes I have met with an instance where the prohibition 

 is not a perpetual injunction never, under any circumstances, to be 

 broken. In the Kunandaburi tribe the prohibition is relaxed on the 



* This is opposed to the commonly-received notion that the lower savages are men- 

 tally incapahle of perceiving and dealing with such qnestious. But the fact is be- 

 yond dispute that they do perceive them, and discuss them freely among themselves, 

 the women taking an active part in the discussion. 



