PRESIDENTIAL ADDEESS. LXXV 



faintly differentiated amongst Australian tribes, or, rather, we 

 find only the earliest rudiment of a recognition of terms of con- 

 sanguinity as known to us. 



With our present knowledge of the classificatory system and 

 terms of kinship, and of sundry customs connected with special 

 ceremonies as at present existing, it is possible to form some idea 

 of the earlier and more primitive haibits and customs of their 

 ancestors. Just as amongst higher animals vestigial structures 

 point hack to ancestral conditions, and amongst various peoples 

 vestigial customs indicate the habits of earlier times, so does our 

 knowledge of the organization of the present tribes indicate a time 

 when there was no such thing as individual relationship recog- 

 nised. The whole organization is based on the clear recognition 

 of group relationship, with here and there foreshadowings of the 

 recognition of individual relationship, and the former, which 

 included in those far-back times group marriage, with its corollary 

 of group responsibility and unity of action, both for offence and 

 defence, probably played an important part in the social develop- 

 ment of early mankind. The family, as we know it now, is a 

 development of a time tater than that at which the ancestors 

 of the present aboriginals made their home in Australia. The 

 comparatively narrow terms of consanguinity, also based upon 

 physiological data as known to us, have replaced a wider recogni- 

 tion of kinship, such as we meet with in Australian tribes, that 

 had no relation to physiological factors. 



I now pass on to deal with the problem of the development of 

 the customs, beliefs, and arts, which, taken all together, form 

 the culture of the aboriginals. It is a difficult one to solve. There 

 are many aspects that must be taken into account, and the 

 evidence afforded by a study of the geological, biological, and 

 climatological conditions, as they exist now and did in the imme- 

 diate past, must be carefully considered. 



Put very briefly, the following may ibe regarded as the main 

 points of importance in regard to these, so far as the Australian 

 culture problem is concerned. 



From the geological point of view it seems most prohahle that 

 in late tertiary times there was a large land mass, including the 

 present Australia, ISTew Guinea, and Tasmania. The historic 

 '•' Wallace's line," between Bali and Lombok, may not be as abso- 

 lutely defined as once it was supposed to be, but on the whole it 

 still holds good, and indicates a decisive line of cleavage between 

 Asia and Australia. It definitelv isolated the latter from the land 

 masses on the north, and must have been established long before 

 the earliest ancestors of mankind had been developed, during 

 Pliocene or perhaps even earlier times. 



