•10 NOTES ON SOCI.VL AND INDIVIUUAI, NdMKNCI-ATURE, ETC. 



Every male is primarily some one's brother, father, brother- 

 in-law, mother's brother; every female is similarly some one's 

 ■sister, mother, sister-in-laAv, father's sister. But these terras, 

 mother, father, brother, sister, in addition to their generally 

 accepted meaning of relationship by blood, express a class or 

 gronp-connection quite independent of it. ^lother is the one 

 and the same name used by an aboriginal to express not only 

 the woman that gave him birth, but also the sisters (matron or 

 virgin) connected with her by blood, as well as the dozens of 

 women connected with her by class or group on a basis to be 

 subsequently explained. Similarly witli the terms brother, 

 father, sister. The name of sister-in-laAv as here used signifies 

 any female member of the particular group or class from among 

 Avhom a man is allowed to choose a mate, it includes a man's 

 wife, and her blood sisters, as well as the multitudinous other 

 women belonging to the same group. 



TuK Patronvm, or tribal name. I'-very person belongs to 

 the sa)ne camp or tribe as his or her lilouil-father ; cjj. If a 

 Pitta-Pitta (Boulia) male marries a ^Mitakoodi (Cloncurry) 

 wonum, the child irrespective of sex, is a Pitta-Pitta. 



Thk Gamomatronym. — Every person in a tribe belongs to 

 one or other of two main groups ; a member of the one group 

 can only marry a member of the other, and the offspring, 

 irrespective of sex, always belongs to the same main group as its 

 blood-mother The term gamomatronym is intended to 



express the suitable marriage-union and blood-mothership 

 implied by these two main divisions which are everywhere 

 discoverable and generally recognised by distinct names; fji., 

 Ootaroo and Pakoota at Boulia, Cloncurry, etc., Ootaroo and 

 Mullara along the Leichhardt, Selwyn Ranges (Kalkadoon Tribe), 

 Woodaroo and Yungaroo in the Rockhampton area, etc. 

 At Normanton among the WoUangama blacks, and at Miriam 

 Vale, a few miles south of Gladstone, among the Koreng-Koreng 

 no special gamomatronymic terms were obtainable, although the 

 distinctions implied by these two uuiin groups were ol)servable. 



Thk Pakijomatronym. — i'-ach gamonuitronymic group is 

 divided into two, one for the offspring, and the- other for the 

 blood-mother ; these secondary divisions, owing to this distin- 



