ORIGIN OF PHRATRIES.
Mr Lang's theory and its basis. Borrowing of phratry names. Split groups.
The Victorian area. Totems and phratry names. Reformation theory of
phratriac origin.
If a pre-phratry organisation developed into the system as we find it,
it is a little difficult to see how selection can have operated, unless,
indeed, as Mr Lang suggests, the phratries are _transformed_ connubial
groups, in which case they may have received new names. It is perhaps
simpler to suppose that the cases of selection of phratry names cited
above are those in which the organisation has been borrowed with full
knowledge of its meaning. If this view is correct, no criticism of
theories of the origin of phratries is possible from the point of view
of the names actually existing, for we cannot say which, if any, are
those which were evolved in the organisation which served as a model to
the remainder.
Broadly speaking the theories of origin at present in the field may be
reduced to two: in the first place, the conscious reformation theory,
which supposes that man discovered the evils of in-and-in breeding, a
point on which some discussion will be found in a later portion of this
work. In the second place, there is the unconscious evolution theory put
forward by Mr Lang, whose criticism of the opposing view makes it
unnecessary to deal with the objections here[107].
Mr Lang's original theory took for its basis the hypothesis, put forward
by the late Mr J.J. Atkinson, in _Primal Law_, of the origin of
exogamy. His starting-point was mankind in the brute stage. At the point
in the evolution of the human race at which Mr Atkinson takes up his
tale, man, or rather Eoanthropos, was, according to his conjecture,
organised, if that term can be applied to the grouping of the lower
animals, in bodies consisting of one adult male, an attendant horde of
adult females, including, probably, at any rate after a certain lapse of
time, his own progeny, together with the immature offspring of both
sexes. As the young males came to maturity, they would be expelled from
the herd, as is actually the case with cattle and other mammals, by
their sire, now become their foe. They probably wandered about, as do
the young males of some existing species, in droves of a dozen or more,
and at certain seasons of the year, one or more of them would, as they
felt their powers mature, engage the lord of their own or of another
herd in single combat, until with the lapse of time the latter either
succumbed or was driven from the herd to end his days in solitary
ferocity, his hand against everyone, just as we see the rogue elephant
wage war indiscriminately on all who approach him.
In process of time, so Mr Atkinson suggests, with the lengthening
childhood conditioned by the progress of the race, maternal love of a
more enduring kind developed, than is found among the non-human species
of the present day. This led eventually to the presence of a young male,
perhaps the youngest born of a given mother, being permitted to remain,
on conditions, in the herd after he had attained maturity. The original
lord and master of the herd retained, Mr Atkinson supposes, his full
sovereignty over the females born in the herd as well as over those whom
his prowess had perhaps added to it from time to time. The young male on
the other hand was not condemned to a life of celibacy as a condition of
his non-enforcement of the traditional decree of banishment. He was
permitted to find a mate, but she must be a mate not born in the herd,
nor one of the harem of his sire; he had, if he wished to wed, to
capture a spouse for himself from another herd. For the detailed working
out of this ingenious theory we must refer our readers to Mr Atkinson's
work, _Primal Law_. Here it suffices to state the primal law which
resulted from the process sketched above. This primal law was "thou
shalt not marry within the group." This law, at first enforced by the
superior strength of the sire, came in the process of time to be a
traditional rule of conduct, almost an instinct. And with this we reach
the theory put forward in _Social Origins_ by Mr Andrew Lang, according
to which local groups received animal names, perhaps from their
neighbours. These local groups being exogamous for the reason just
given, and the group name being eventually[108] given, not only to the
actual members of the group, but also to the women, captured or
otherwise, who became the mates of the men of the adjoining groups, it
necessarily resulted that the men of a group, so long as the mother's
group name did not descend to her children, were of one name, while
their wives were of another, or more probably of many other names. The
group became definitely heterogeneous when the maternal group name
descended to the children born in the alien group, and in process of
time these maternal group names became totem names.
Meanwhile the original group names had been retained and applied, along
with the totem or quasi-totem names, to the members of the group; the
name being probably, in the first place, that of the group in which they
were born, but, with the rise of the matrilineal descent, which has been
discussed above, eventually taken from the group to which the mother
belonged.
During these processes the custom had sprung up to select a wife, not at
random from any of the probably more or less hostile surrounding groups,
but from one particular group with which the group of the candidate for
matrimony had in the course of time come to be on friendly terms.
The names of these two groups, which drew in other smaller groups,
became the phratry names of the newly-formed aggregate, the largest unit
known to primitive society at that stage of its evolution, and
corresponding roughly to what we have defined as a tribe; for it was
united by bonds of friendship, and in the course of time the language,
originally very different no doubt, how different we can, indeed, hardly
say, must have so far coalesced, owing to the interchange of wives (in
so far as a distinct woman's language, traces of which are found among
some savage tribes, was not developed), as to produce a single tongue.
This theory Mr Lang has now fortified and elaborated in _The Secret of
the Totem_, the most important new point being the demonstration of the
fact that totem kins which bear names of the same significance as the
phratry names are almost invariably in the eponymous phratries--a clear
proof that law and not chance has determined their position.
As an explanation of the distribution of phratry names Mr Lang adopts a
theory which combines the hypotheses of evolution and borrowing, and
thus explains both the wide area covered by some systems, and the
increasing multitude of organisations confined to small districts, which
more minute research reveals. This does not, it is true, explain the
geographical remoteness of different parts of the same system or of
allied systems, shown to be so by the identity of phratry animal or
name. Not only is Wuthera-Mallera split into two sections; but a portion
of Wuthera-Yungaru seems to be in the same position; if we may take the
Badieri Yungo as equivalent to Yungaru, dispersion alone suffices to
explain the case; but if Yungo is derived from the Kurnandaburi, who
have Mattera as the sister phratry, then we have the Badieri phratry
names borrowed each from a different tribe, at any rate in appearance.
In reality this state of things affords the strongest possible support
to Mr Lang's hypothesis, if only we can suppose that the formation of
tribes is subsequent to the elaboration of the phratriac system. For it
might well happen that an original Yungo local group divided, from
economic causes, but that each half retained its original name. Under
these circumstances the two portions formed connubial alliances with
other groups; and in the tribes as we see the names of these split
groups are found as phratry names, combined in each case with a
different sister phratry name. We find for example Wuthera-Yungo,
Yungo-Mattera, Matteri-Kiraru in the central area. The same theory will
explain the appearance of Wuthera beside three other sister names,
though here we must call in the borrowing and migration theories as
well, to explain the wide area over which the names are found. We have
seen that in the northern tribes one of the phratry names appears to be
in each case from the same root; if this is so, we can apply to them too
the split-group hypothesis.
The case of Eaglehawk-Crow is less simple. Separated from the Darling
area by a considerable space lie four systems of the same name in the
east of Victoria. Here it is hardly possible to assume that the latter
systems have migrated; on the other hand the area covered by the Darling
group suggests that it is unlikely to have been forced from its original
home by pressure from outside. Perhaps it is simplest to suppose that
the Wiradjeri have gradually forced their way in, wedge fashion, between
the different sections, and either swallowed up the intervening members
or driven them before them; this would account for the existence of the
anomalous groups to the south-west.
In this area, too, we seem to have a case of the split group; but the
identity of meaning of the other phratry names (Malian and Multa both
mean Eaglehawk) makes it clear that it is simply a case of
translation--a possibility which must be kept in mind in the other cases
also. It is a common phenomenon for two tribes to have the name of one
animal in common, while for that of another entirely different words are
in use. The four Victorian groups appear to have borrowed the phratry
names, but the centre from which they took them must remain uncertain.
It may be noted in passing that the view of Prof. Gregory, who holds
that the occupation of Victoria by the blacks dates back no more than
300 years, is hardly borne out by the distribution of the phratriac
systems. It is clearly improbable that they were developed _in situ_,
for this would make the organisation of very much more recent date than
we have any warrant for supposing. On the other hand it is improbable
that four tribes, all with the same phratriac names, should have taken
their course in the same direction, and settled in proximity to one
another, at any rate, unless the natural features of the country made
this course the only possible one.
To return to Mr Lang's theory, it obviously suggests, if it does not
demand, that such phratries as are spread over wide areas should in the
main follow the lines of linguistic or cultural areas. Our knowledge of
these is hardly sufficient to enable us to say at present how far the
presumption of coincidence is fulfilled; but it is certain that in more
than one large area the facts are as Mr Lang's theory requires them to
be.
On the other hand in New South Wales we find an area in which we fail to
discern the lines on which the phratriac systems are distributed. Here,
however, we are at a disadvantage in consequence of the uncertainty
introduced by the unsettled question of "blood" organisations[109].
Further research may show that the supposed phratriac areas, which are
apparently only portions of the Wiradjeri territory, are in reality to
be assigned to the "blood" organisations, which we may probably assign
to a later date than the phratries and classes.
Perhaps Mr Lang's theory hardly accounts for the fact that eaglehawk and
crow figure not only as phratry names but also in the myths and rites.
It is not apparent why eaglehawk and crow groups should take the lead
and give their names to the phratries unless it was as contrasted
colours; on the other hand, if they were selected as the names from
among a number of others this difficulty vanishes, but then we do not
see why these names are not more widely found, unless indeed the
untranslated names mean eaglehawk and crow; but possibly all express a
contrast of some sort.
On the whole, however, it may be said that Mr Lang's theory holds the
field. Not only is it internally consistent, which cannot be affirmed of
the reformation theory, but it colligates the facts far better. This may
be illustrated by a single point.
On the reformation theory, unaccompanied, as it is, by any hypothesis of
borrowing of phratry names, we should _primâ facie_ find the latter,
where they are translateable, to be those of the animals which are most
frequently found as totems. Now in the area covered by Dr Howitt's
recent work, omitting those tribes for which our lists of totems are
admittedly not complete, we find that emu, kangaroo, snake, eaglehawk,
and iguana are found as totems in about two-thirds of the cases; then,
after a long interval, come wallaby and crow, less than half as often,
with opossum rather more frequently, in half the total number. But it is
clearly outside the bounds of probability that four of the commonest
totems should not give their names, so far as is known, to phratries,
while eaglehawk recurs five, crow six, and cockatoo three times, the two
latter in one case in a remote area. Not only so, but the opposition
between the phratry names--black and white or the like--is
unintelligible, if, as on Dr Durkheim's theory, the phratries are simply
the elementary totem groups which intermarried and threw off secondary
totem kins. But criticism of other theories opens a wide field, into
which it is best not to diverge.
On the development theory the phratries came into existence perhaps as
the result of the persistence of an old custom of exogamy, non-moral in
its inception, or, it may be, as a result of the rise of totemic tabus.
The reformation theory, on the other hand, makes the conscious
attainment of a better state of society the object of the institution of
a dichotomous organisation. It will therefore be well to see what
results in practice from the phratriac organisation.
In the two-phratry area (other rules, which usually exist, apart) it is
impossible for children of the same mother or father, or of sisters or
of brothers, to marry, nor can one of the parents, either mother or
father, according to the rule of descent, take her or his own child in
marriage. Now if the object of the reformation was to prevent parents
from marrying children, it was clearly not attained. If, on the other
hand, it was intended to prevent children of the same mother or father
from intermarrying, the result could have been attained far more simply,
either by direct prohibition, such as is found in other cases, or by the
institution of totemic exogamy, which, in the view of some authorities,
already existed, and consequently made the phratry superfluous.
According to Dr Frazer's 1905 theory, phratries were introduced to
prevent brother and sister marriage and exogamous bars began in the
female line[110]. Against this hypothesis may be urged not only the
objections first stated but also the fact that for Dr Frazer the Arunta
are primitive and yet reckon descent (of the class) in the _male_ line.
If, as he conceives, conceptional totemism was transformed in the
central tribes into patrilineal totemism, I fail to see why the
phratries or classes should descend in the female line.
If in the third place, it was proposed to prevent children of sisters or
of brothers from intermarrying, it is completely mysterious why children
of brothers and sisters should not only not have been prevented in the
same way, but absolutely be regarded as the proper mates for each other.
Even if a single community reformed itself on these lines, it is hardly
conceivable that many should have done so, even if we suppose that the
advantages of prohibition were preached from tribe to tribe by
missionaries of the new order of things. _Ex hypothesi_, cousin marriage
was not regarded as harmful; and it is highly improbable that any people
in the lower stages of culture should have discovered that in-and-in
breeding is harmful, for the results, especially in a people which
contained no degenerates, would not appear at once, even if they
appeared at all.
On this point therefore the probabilities are wholly on the side of
development as against reformation.
An additional reason against the reformation theory is found in the fact
that phratries, on this theory, would never exceed two in number, but in
practice there are, as shown in Chapter II, wide variations.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] _Secret of the Totem_, pp. 31, 91 sq.
[108] Mr Lang's view is that the women from the first retained their
original group names wherever they went. _Letter of July 27th_, 1906.
[109] See pp. 31, 50.
[110] _Fortn. Rev._ LXXVIII, 459.