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Each of the social category systems divides society into an even number
of complementary classes: 2 moieties, 4 sections and 8 subsections.
These are known in Aboriginal English as ‘skins’ in some parts of the
country.
• Moieties
• Sections
• Subsections
Moiety is a dual division of society. It is considered to be a social
category but it is usually related to descent, either through the
father-line (patrimoiety) or mother-line (matrimoiety). Both of these
types occur in Australia, sometimes among the same people, with
different types of rights, ceremonies and so on connected to each.
Patrimoieties, unlike other social categories do have an indirect
connection to areas of land, because each of the moieties is made up of
a set of clans, each of which has its clan estate. The moiety areas are
not usually made up of continuous blocks of land. Each moiety (both
patrilineal and matrilineal) is often associated with a set of natural
species, or environmental phenomena, their totems.
There are some other moieties which are not related to descent. In
Australia generational moieties are found in some areas. In such
systems adjacent generations are in the opposite moiety and alternate
generations in the same moiety. So for instance my father or mother
will be in the opposite generational moiety to me, and my grandfather
or grandmother in the same moiety. Generational moieties can be found
in the same language group together with patrimoiety and/or matrimoiety.
Most moieties have names which are sociocentric terms, that person X
and his or her group is always called by the same term no matter who is
talking, like the Yolngu patrimoieties Dhuwa and Yirritja. There are in
some cases egocentric terms, that vary according to who is talking e.g.
a term for ‘our moiety’ and ‘the other moiety’, especially with
generational moieties, like Western Desert nganantarrka (our bone)
versus tyanamiltyan (their flesh).
Moieties of all the kinds mentioned are found in many places in the
world outside Australia. The other social categories, sections
and subsections, are hardly found outside Australia – sections in one
small region of South America and subsections only in Australia.
• Structure of section systems
• Function of sections
A Section is a division of society into four categories. It is neither
matrilineal nor patrilineal nor generational but has features of
both types of descent and generational divisions combined.
Table 1 shows marriage and matrilineal descent in the General
Queensland (GQ) system, which stretches across much of Queensland with
only minor variation in terminology.
Table 1: General Queensland Section Terminology
| Terms | Terms | |
|---|---|---|
| Kuparu | Marry | Kurrkila |
| mother/child of | mother/child of | |
| Wunku | Marry | Panpari |
Another well-known section system is that among the Kariera (Kariyarra)
, in the Pilbara of northern Western Australia on the opposite side of
the continent from the Queensland and New South Wales section systems.
Radcliffe-Brown (1931:7) added letters to the sections, a convention
which continues to be used, as shown in Table 2 (spelling updated to
recent understanding).
Table 2: Kariera (Kariyarra) section system, W.A.
| Code | Terms | Terms | Code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Panaka | marry | Purungu | B |
| mother/child of | mother/child of | |||
| C | Karimarra | marry | Palyarri | D |
Not only these basic kin types but all relations fit into this scheme
on the basis of familiar extension rules which operate in
classificatory systems. So, for instance, your mother’s mother’s
mother’s sister’s son is in the same section as your mother’s mother
because your mother’s sister’s son (the last part of the kinship string
above) is a parallel cousin, which is classified as a sibling. So an
MMMZS is a kind of MMB who is a ‘skin brother’ because he is in the
same section as you. However an MMB would rarely be called a ‘brother’
in the kinship terminology. This is where skinship and kinship part
company.
To call somebody by a section term one does not have to be able to
trace a full genealogical path between yourself and the other person.
It often works the other way around: as a shortcut, a kinship
relationship is nominated between you and a person with a skin
(section) name and that provides you with a ready-made set of relations
in the other person’s group and others. So typically a person may be
designated as a classificatory fictive ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ of a
person with whom he or she is closely associated, and the rest follows.
Or if there is a plan for you to marry someone in a group which, for
instance, does not have sections, then that intended spouse from the
stranger group would be assigned to the spouse/cross-cousin section.
If the marriage of the parents is of the first preferred, or
‘straight’, type, then there will be no question about assignment of a
section term to the children. However, if the marriage is not of this
type, then assignment based on the father will be different from that
based on the mother. Various principles and strategies will be deployed
in different groups to settle this question.
The function of sections in determining correct marriage partners is
important and that is why they were called ‘(Marriage) Classes’ by
early anthropologists. However, the functions are much broader than
this: with a section name one can be fitted into families of apparent
strangers and call them by kinship terms without necessarily knowing
their genealogical connections to oneself, or indeed having any. Thus,
many non-Aboriginal people as well as Aborigines from areas without
sections or subsections can be assigned ‘skin’ names by Aboriginal
people and be incorporated in this way. The section and subsection
systems therefore contribute to broadening the scope of ‘Universal
Kinship Categorisation’, whereby everyone can call everyone else by a
kinship term.
The scope of section systems does not terminate in regions when
different terms are used. Users of the system are usually entirely
familiar with the ‘Pragmatic Equivalence’ rules between different
terminologies over a wide area. The ambit of the section system is thus
much wider than a single ‘society’ or language group and operates in a
highly extended inter-communal space. Gamilaraay people, for
instance, were aware of the General Queensland system to their
north, and vice versa. They knew which terms were equivalent to which
in the other region, who they called ‘mother’, for example, and who
they could and could not marry, despite the difference in terms used.
A subsection system has twice as many component units as a section
system: eight insteaqd of four. As an example, here is the Warlpiri
system. In this system there are masculine and feminine fors of each
subsection (labelled m and f).
Table 3. Warlpiri subsections
| Code | Terms | Code | Terms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1m A1f | Japanangka Napanangka | Marry | B1m B1f | Jupurrurla Napurrurla |
| A2m A2f | Jungarrayi Nungarrayi | Marry | B2m B2f | Jangala Nangala |
| C1m C1f | Jakamarra Nakamarra | Marry | D1m D1f | Japaljarri Napaljarri |
| C2m C2f | Jampijinpa Nampijinpa | Marry | D2m D2f | Japangardi Napangardi |
Subsections are found in the north central part of Australia, across
the savanna belt of the Northern Territory, the southern Kimberley or
WA and part of Western Queensland. Sections are found on both sides of
this distribution. Generally either sections or subsections are found
in a language group, not both at once.
This distribution results from subsections arising from an amalgamation
of two section systems in the centre of the current distribution of
subsections near to Katherine, NT, perhaps 1000-2000 years ago. From
there they spread out in all directions by cultural diffusion,
replacing sections in some regions.
One of the components that contributed to the foundation of the
subsection system was the western section system, as illustrated for
Kariera (Kariyarra) in Table 2. For instance the subsection terms A1
panangka; C1 kamarra and D1 paljarri are related to the section terms A
panaka; C karimarra; and D palyarri, respectively.
The function of subsections is similar to that of sections, to allow
people to extend a version of the kinship systems to people who cannot
be traced by genealogy and thus to make cooperation and sharing easier.
Subsections, like sections, also designate the ‘straight’ partner in
marriages. In most subsection systems this preferred spouse is a second
cousin like a mother’s mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter for a
man. This differs from sections where a first cross-cousin (mother’s
brother’s child or father’s sister’s child) is the preferred partner.
This does not mean that people marry the actual cousin but someone
classified as the same by the kinship or ‘skin’ system.
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