We have seen in an earlier chapter that kinship and consanguinity are distinct in their nature, though among civilised peoples they are not in practice distinguishable. In the lower stages of culture it is otherwise, as will be shown in detail below. Corresponding to this distinction of consanguinity and kinship but not parallel to it we have two ways of expressing these relationships—the descriptive and the classificatory. The terminology of the former system is based on the principle of reckoning the relationship of two people by the total number of steps between them and the nearest lineal ancestor of both. The latter does not concern itself with descent at all but expresses the status of the individual as a member of a group of persons. Thus, to take a single example, in a typical Australian tribe the word applied by a child to its father is not used of him alone but of all the other males on the same level of a generation provided they belong to the same phratry; to the other half of the generation is applied the term usually translated "mother's brother."
Unfortunately but few Australian lists of kinship terms have been drawn up, and the anomalous tribes like the Kurnai have absorbed a large share of attention. It is however possible to give tables for the three classes of tribes with which we have been in the main concerned. Those given are in use among the Wathi-Wathi of Victoria, the Ngerikudi-speaking people of North Queensland and the Arunta[138].
Wathi-Wathi Tribe: two-phratry.
| Phratry A | Phratry B | Generation | ||
| Naponui (mother's father) Miimui (father's mother) | Kokonui (mother's mother) Matui (father's father) | I | ||
| Mamui (father) Niingui (father's sister= Nalundui, wife's mother) | Kukui (mother) Gunui (mother's brother= Nguthanguthu wife's father) | II | ||
| Malunui (father's sister's son) Neripui (father's sister's daughter=wife) | EGO Wawi, mamui (elder brother, sister) Tatui, minukui (younger do.) | III | ||
| Waipui (son, daughter) | Ngipui (sister's son) ? (sister's dau. =Boikathui, son's wife) | IV | ||
| Naponui (daughter's son) Miimui (sister's son's son) | Kokonui (sister's daughter's son) Matui (son's son) | V | ||
Ngerikudi: Four-class.
| Phratry A: Class a | Class a1 | Phratry B: Class b | Class b1 | Generation |
| Daida (mother's father) Baida (father's mother) | Mite (mother's mother) Laeta (father's father | I | ||
| Naider (father) Waita (father's brother) Niata (elder sister) Wiata (younger do.) | Naibeguta (mother) Miata (brother) Goete (elder sister) Datu (younger do.) | II | ||
| Danuma (wife=mo. bro. dau.) Lanti ngenuma (sister's husband =mo. bro. son) | EGO Maneinga (elder brother) Goete (elder sister) Otro (younger brother or sister) | III | ||
| Yuta (son or daughter) | ? (sister's son or daughter) Yamaanta (dau's husband) | IV | ||
| Yudanta (daughter's child) | Yuunta (son's child) | V |
So far as deficiencies in our information would allow, these tables have been drawn up on corresponding lines, and the first point which strikes us is the great similarity between the three tables, in spite of the apparent wide divergence in the kinship organisation of the tribes. To facilitate comparison the Wathi-Wathi terms have been arranged, not only according to the system in use in the tribe, but in such a way as to show how the terms would be arranged under the four-class system.