Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia

London England: Frank Cass and Co Limited, 1906. Northcote W. Thomas was an acknowledged expert on Australia and wrote many works on the various tribes who originally inhabited that continent. In this present work, first published in 1906, he is concerned with kinship groups and the marriage regulations based on them. He discusses the social organization of various tribes in relation to the descent of kinship from its original and primitive form, devoting one chapter to the definition of the many groups that existed within the tribes, such as the subtribes, local groups, phratries, classes and totem kins. He goes on to consider, among other things, phratry names, the origin of phratries, class names, the various theories of the origin of classes, kinship terms, types of sexual union, group marriage, the complicated distinction between the pirrauru and tippa - malku unions, wife lending, and initiation ceremonies. The reissue of this valuable survey of Australian tribal life, must be welcomed by all students of Australian ethnography. 163pp including 10 page (total) Index of Phratry, Blood, and Class names as well as a subject index. This book will be POSTED AT OUR STANDARD RATES FULLY INSURED (UK) ONLY . Please email for further details. Not Signed or Inscribed. This the New Impression of 1966. Green Cloth. NEAR FINE (NEAR NEW)/NEAR FINE (NEAR NEW). Illus. by Black-and-White Maps. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾". HARDBACK.