ii2 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



husband as well as their own mother by the name of 

 mother, distinguishing them if necessary as "little 

 mothers." Reciprocally they are called "son" or 

 " daughter " by their mother's male pirrauru? and 

 probably by her female partners in thzpirrauru group. 

 For we read that " in the event of a tippa-malku 

 wife dying, a pirrauru wife will take charge of her 

 children and attend to them with affection and not in any 

 manner as a step-mother. It must be remembered/' 

 Dr. Howitt goes on to say, " that a man's wives 

 whether tippa-malku or pirrauru are in the relation of 

 sisters either own or tribal." 2 Here he hits the heart 

 of the difficulty around which anthropologists are still 

 disputing. The Australian terms of relationship are 

 so wide that in the present state of the discussion it is 

 unsafe to build any argument upon them. One result, 

 however, emerges : they do not necessarily convey 

 any assertion as to physical relationship in the same 

 way that ours do. 



The sexual arrangements of the Dieri have been 

 laid bare in greater detail than those of any other 

 matrilineal tribe in Australia. To avoid repetition it 

 may be said there is general correspondence in the 

 institutions of all such tribes, at all events in the 

 south-eastern part of the continent. In some it would 

 appear that the licence is even greater and amounts at 

 times to absolute promiscuity. 3 In New South Wales 



1 Howitt,/. A. I. xx. 58. We cannot consider it surprising that 

 " frequently the women say they are ignorant which man, the Noa 

 or the Pirrauru, is the father of any particular child, or they do not 

 admit that there is only one father." 



2 Id. 184. 



3 E.g.i the now extinct tribe of the Kurnandaburi, Howitt, 192, 

 193; the Wiimbaio, Tatathi and Keramin, Id. 195. Other ex 



