560 MATHEWS—THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. (Oct. 5, 
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION. 
In examining the structure of Australian tribes it is found that 
they possess fixed laws for regulating marital relations. In some 
cases these laws are of a simple character and consist of the elders 
of the tribe alloting the progeny of certain women to be the wives 
of certain men; in other cases the community is segregated into 
¢wo primary groups or phratries, the men of the one group marry- 
ing the women of the other, with a reciprocal obligation. In some 
tribes each of these two primary groups is bisected, making four 
intermarrying divisions. Among certain tribes of the northern 
portion of Australia, we find that each phratry or group is subdivided 
into four sections, thus making e/gf¢ divisions of the community. 
These tribal divisions have been called Social Organizations or 
Systems, and an attempt will now be made to briefly explain their 
development among Australian tribes. 
In portions of Australia, widely separated from each other, among 
which may be mentioned part of the southern coast of South Aus- 
tralia, part of the west coast of Western Australia and the south- 
eastern coastal districts of Victoria and New South Wales, we dis- 
cover that the intermarriage of the individuals of a tribe is of the 
simple character referred to in the beginning of the last paragraph. 
In some respects these people differ in physical type, in weapons, 
in language and in their ceremonies, from the natives of other parts 
of Australia, but resemble in several particulars the inhabitants of 
Tasmania, which favors the theory already enunciated in this essay 
in regard to their common origin. 
The old men assemble in council at irregular periods, and as 
often as may be necessary, for the purpose of appointing certain 
young married women to be what is termed /vvar to certain boys, 
and such boys are likewise called fovoar to these women. Care is 
taken that the parties appointed /ocar to each other are not closely 
related by ties of blood. The boys are thenceforth forbidden to 
speak to, or even to look at, these women ; and the latter are sub- 
ject to a similar ban in regard to the boys. For example, if one 
of the women bears a daughter she gives such child, when old 
enough, to the young man to whom she herself is fovav; and if he 
has a sister he is supposed to give her to one of the woman’s sons 
in exchange for his own wife. These two men would. therefore 
stand in the mutual relationship of brothers-in-law. 
