44 
HORN EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Nevertheless it is quite true that the organisation described for that section 
extends throughout the whole of the tribe, of which it is a part. 
This organisation I will proceed to describe, but in order that it may be 
fully understood by those who are unfamiliar with a rather complex question, 
some preliminary explanation is necessary, which has been made easy by the 
writings of Messrs. Howitt and Fison and particularly by those of the former 
gentleman, to whom every worker in Australian ethnology owes a debt of 
gratitude and from whose papers I have freely borrowed. 
As shown by the authorities quoted, the primitive social division of Australian 
tribes, which Mr. Howitt considers to have been originally undivided communes, 
are two primary exogamously intermarrying divisions or classes. For these the 
term phratries (L. H. Morgan) will be used in this paper as conveying a better 
idea of their status and inter-relations than the term class. 
Following Mr. Howitt’s suggestion we may conveniently represent these two 
phratries by A and B. With each of them is associated, in many tribes, a number 
of totem clans bearing the names of some natural objects usually, but not always, 
those of animals or jilants, each group of totem names being in fact “a several and 
collective representation of its primary (class).” 
With such a social structure the correlative marriage restrictions are, broadly 
speaking, that a male of A may only marry a female of B. 
In certain tribes, however, w’hei e the associated groups of totem clans exist 
a further restriction has arisen which imposes upon a male of A, represented by a 
particular totem, the obligation to marry only a female of B, represented by some 
one or other particular totem. 
This condition may be represented by the diagram :— 
Phratrj. 
Totem Clans. 
A 
1, 2, 3, etc. 
B 
I., II., III., etc. 
under which a male of A represented by totem 1 would be required to marry a 
female of B represented by any or by some particular totem. 
