PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. LXXIII 



On tile borders of tlie two tribes, where tbey come in contact 

 with one another, and where every now and then intertribal 

 marriages take place, there is a deliberate change in the grouping 

 of the classes to fit in with the maternal or paternal line of descent, 

 as the case may be. This is shown in the following table :— 



If, for example, a Matthuri man goes into the Arunta Tribe, 

 then he is told by the old men of the local group into which he 

 has gone that he is, say, a Bulthara. Accordingly, he marries a 

 Kumara woman, or, if he already has a wife, she is regarded as 

 Kuinara, and their children are Panunga, or, in other words, they 

 pass into the father's moiety, as the classes are arranged in the 

 Ai'unta, and into that of the mother in the Urabunna- Tribe. 



Nothing could be more deliberate than these arrangements, but 

 by some recent writers the suggestion of deliberate action to regu- 

 late marriage in Australian tribes, as put forward by Dr. Howitt, 

 Mr. Gillen, and myself after long personal experience in the field, 

 is entirely rejected. It has been styled the reformation theory, 

 and as(^) making " the conscious attainment of a better state of 

 society the object of the institution of a dichotomous organiza- 

 tion." 



This shows a serious misunderstanding of the question at issue, 

 and also a lack of appreciation of the capacity and mental outlook 

 of the Australian savage. By the use of the w^ord "better " it 

 rather begs the question, anti also conveys a wrong impression. 

 The Australian savage, as far as I am aware, has no word which 

 connotes to him the moral significance that the word " better " 

 does to us. For him, if he had an equivalent term to use in 

 regard to this dichotomous division and its consequent restrictions 

 and results, it would imply either more convenient for the general 

 management of tribal affairs or more likely to serve his own per- 

 sonal interests, but it would in no way refer to physiological or 

 what we call moral matters. As Sir James Frazer says,(^) "men 

 have very often done right from the most absurd motives," and, 

 in the case of savages, I would add, from the most self-considering 

 motives. 



(') N. W. Thomas. " Kinship, Organization, and Group Marriage in Australia," page 

 («) Sir J.. E. Frazer, " Totemism and Exogamy," vol. 4, page 160. 



