The Family among the Australian Aborigines, a Sociological Study

by Bronislaw Malinowski

We may mention also the works of van Gennep, Mythes et Légendes d'Australie, especially chaps. v. and vi. of the Introduction, pp. 44-67, in which the ignorance of the natives is illustrated by several interesting remarks and inferences from other facts (for example, the beliefs of the aborigines about the rôle and nature of the sexual organs, pp. 111 sqq.). Compare also the article of Frhr. v. Reitzenstein, Z.f.E., xli., pp. 644 sqq. Mr. A. Lang's views (comp. above, p. 181, [footnote 1]) are expounded in Anthrop. Essays, pp. 203 sqq., and in The Secret of the Totem, chap. xi.

[586] This refers to the whole Central and North Central area. Spencer and Gillen, Nor. Tr., p. 330. In a short note of recent date (Athenæum, Nov. 4, 1911, p. 562), we read that Prof. B. Spencer has found the same absence of physiological knowledge in the tribes living North-West of the "Northern Tribes" (from Roper River to Port Darwin). According to his opinion this belief obtains from the South Coast of Australia over a broad belt right through the Centre to the North Coast. (Ibid.)

[587] It may be remembered here that this is not in contradiction with the passage in M. A. von Gennep's work, Mythes and Légendes d'Australie, p. lxiii, implying that there is social but not physiological consanguinity between father and child in the Central Australian tribes. The difference in terminology is explained above, p. 178, [footnote 1], and reasons are given explaining why I did not adopt M. A. von Gennep's terminology, although I completely share his views.

[588] Loc. cit., ii. p. 52, footnote 7.

[589] Attention was drawn to this phrase by P. W. Schmidt in his article in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (1908), p. 866 sqq., where the theory of conception among the Arunta is discussed. He doubts: "Ob wirklich eine vollständige Unkenntniss des Zusammenhanges von Koitus und Konzeption in primitivem Zustande vorhanden ist."—Loc. cit., p. 883.

[590] Strehlow, iii. pp. x., xi.

[591] Frhr. von Reitzenstein shares the view here accepted; comp. his review of Mr. Hartland's "Primitive Paternity" in Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 43 Jhg. (1911), p. 175.

[592] Nat. Tr., p. 265.

[593] Loc. cit., ii. p. 52, footnote 7.

[594] Loc. cit., iii. p. xi.