HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
43 
I was, however, able to gather on my own account a certain amount of infor¬ 
mation respecting the social divisions, or class systems of this same tribe which, if 
not new, may have a certain value as confirming the statements of others who 
have made a special study of a very intricate question. Many interesting details, 
lacking in my own paper, which throw light upon the inter-relations of the various 
classes, will be found in that of Mr. Gillen. 
Social Organisation. 
One of the most conspicuous features of the social life of many of the tribes 
of Australian natives which determines much that is curious in their actions and 
customs is the organisation of the tribe into exogamous marrying classes, and 
these again frequently into sub-classes or even smaller groups. 
Wherever these class divisions exist, the laws arising out of them have 
extraordinary force and are, in general, implicitly obeyed whether in respect of 
actual marriage, illicit connections, or social relations. Infraction of them is a sin 
of the highest gravity. Seldom, indeed, are they broken or, if so broken, rarely is 
the offence persisted in for long, in the face of scandalised public opinion, or 
does it escape actual punishment. Nowhere in Australia, I believe, are the laws 
arising out of these divisions more strongly in force than in the tribe of which I 
write. 
The whole subject—a large and difficult one—has been very thoroughly 
investigated and set forth in various publications by Messrs. Howitt and Fison,* 
whose main contentions are, 1 think, completely supported by the practices of the 
widely extended Arunta tribe. Indeed Mr. Howitt is aware of the fact as regards 
a part of that tribe at least. On the authority of the Reverend H. Kempe, then 
attached to the Lutheran Mission at Hermannsburg, he quotes the Aldoliiia tribe 
on the Finke River as conforming to the general plan of social structure as 
elucidated by him, though departing therefiom in certain respects. 
I have elsewhere stated that the term Aldolifia is not the name of a tribe 
but only indicates a section of the Aruntas lying in a particular direction. 
* “Australian Marriage Laws,” Fison, Journal Anthrop. Inst., vol. ix. “From Mother-right to Father- 
right,” Howitt and Fison, Ibid., vol. xii. “Notes on the Australian Class Systems,” Howitt, Ibid., vol. xii. 
“ Further Notes,” Ibid., vol. xviii. “ Organisation of Australian Tribes,” Howitt, Trans. Roy. Soc. of Victoria, 
vol. i., part 2. “Kamilaroi and Kurnai,” Fison and Howitt. “Australian Group Relations,” Howitt, “Report 
of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Inst.,” 1883. See also Appendix by Howitt to “Notes on some 
Australian Tribes,” Palmer, Journal Anthrop. Inst., vol. xiii. 
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