CHAPTER III
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
As a general rule all Australian tribes are divided into two intermarrying moieties—Use of the terms "class," "clan," and "horde"—Tribes with two classes and female descent—Class names and rules of the Lake Eyre tribes—Tribes on the Darling River in Western New South Wales—The Wiimbaio, Ngarigo, and Wolgal—Tribes with four sub-classes and male descent—Kamilaroi, Wiradjuri, Wonghibon, Unghi, Wollaroi, Emon, Ungorri, Kuinmurbura, Wakelbura, and Buntamura tribes—Tribes with four sub-classes and male descent—The Kaiabara, Muruburra, Annan River tribes—Tribes with eight sub-classes and female descent—The Arunta and Urabunna—Tribes with anomalous class systems and female descent—The Wotjobaluk, Buandik, and Gournditch-mara—Tribes with two-class system and male descent—The Wurunjerri and other Kulin tribes—Tribes with anomalous class systems and male descent—The Yerkla-mining, the Narrang-ga, the Narrinyeri, the Yuin—Tribes with no class system—The Kurnai of Gippsland—The Chepara of Queensland—The equivalence of class names—The two classes were evidently made by the segmentation of original, undivided commune—Totemism—Inherited and acquired totems—Sex totems—Totemism combined with exogamy at root of the social organisation—Views of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, Dr. J. G. Frazer, Mr. Andrew Lang, and Dr. Hadden—There is not sufficient data available to allow of a safe hypothesis as to the origin of totemistic names.
It may be laid down as a general rule that all Australian tribes are divided into two moieties, which intermarry, but each of which is forbidden to marry within itself.
For these two moieties the term "classes" used by Dr. Lorimer Fison and myself, and since adopted by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, and other writers on Australian anthropology, may now be regarded as the recognised term. The expression "tribe" has been used by some writers in this sense, but the "tribe" includes two organisations, the "local," already described, and the "social," to be dealt with now. The terms "clan" and "phratry" are both objectionable, because a definite meaning has become attached to
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