SOCIOLOGY OF SOME AUSTKALIAN TRIBES. 123 



Dr. A. W. Ho witt 1 states that "all Australian tribes are 

 divided into two moieties, each of which is forbidden to 

 marry within itself." He is also in error in speaking of 

 " the segmentation of the community into two exogamous 

 moieties." 



Having studied the question of Australian sociology for 

 many years, I am forced to the conclusion that neither 

 promiscuous intercourse of the sexes nor what has been 

 called "group marriage" has ever existed among the 

 social institutions of the aborigines of Australia. 2 I am 

 equally convinced that the divisions into cycles, phratries 

 and sections have not been deliberately formulated with 

 intent to prevent consanguineous marriages and incest, but 

 have been developed in accordance with surrounding 

 circumstances and conditions of life. This important 

 division of the subject will receive full attention in a 

 future treatise. 



1 " Native Tribes of South-east Australia/' (London, 1904) pp. 88 and 

 284. 



2 " Les Indigenes d'Australie," V Anthropologic, (Paris, 1902) xiii., 

 p. 240. 



