Tjial

Last updated

The Tjial were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory who are now extinct.

Contents

Country

The Tjial's heartland, estimated by Norman Tindale to encompass about 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2), lay around Old Limbunja. They were wedged between the lower Victoria River and the upper West Baines River. [1]

Social organization

R. H. Mathews argued that the Tjial, together with two other tribes of the Victoria River Valley, namely the Bilingara and Kwarandji, shared an identical classificatory pattern for intermarriage. [2] [3] Mathews argued that the system, classifying women into two cycles, each having "perpetual succession within itself," [3] was one characterized by matrilineal descent. His schema, he claimed, was quickly adopted by Francis Gillen and Baldwin Spencer in their analysis of the class system of the Bingongina, which however redeployed the pattern to argue that the latter had but two moieties exhibiting patrilineal descent. A controversy over the interpretation of these data sets arose, with A. R. Radcliffe-Brown effectively winning the day by arguing that the quarrel over matrilineal/patrilineal descent was confused by a failure to appreciate that "descent" in the abstract is meaningless, unless one takes into account the intricacies of class, phratry and totem relations, and irregularities in the overall system. [a]

History of contact

Writing in 1901, R. H. Mathews classified the Tjial as an "important tribe", [4] but by the time of Norman Tindale's writing, in 1978 they had become extinct. With their disappearance, their lands were taken over by the Ngaliwurru to their north. [5]

Alternative names

Notes

  1. ↑ 'Where a tribe is divided into four or eight classes, wrote Radcliffe-Brown, then as long as we consider only the classes, "and take note only of regular marriages, there can be no question as to whether descent is through the father or the mother. In every case it is through both". Where classes are grouped into moieties, it does make sense to talk about descent with respect to the moieties.' Langham adds that today, the Arunta system used by Radcliffe-Brown to claim a patrilineal descent pattern, is now considered matrilineal. (Langham 2012, pp. 334–335)

Citations

  1. ↑ Tindale 1974, pp. 235–236.
  2. ↑ Mathews 1900, p. 72.
  3. 1 2 3 Mathews 1908, p. 150.
  4. 1 2 Mathews 1901, p. 72.
  5. ↑ Tindale 1974, pp. 233, 236.
  6. ↑ Tindale 1974, p. 236.
  7. ↑ Mathews 1901, p. 70.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hamilton Mathews</span> Australian anthropologist and linguist (1841-1918)

Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a corresponding member of the Anthropological Institute of London.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the land now known as Western Australia was home to a diverse range of traditional Australian Aboriginal cultures, spread across numerous language groups, many of which remain today. The border delimiting Western Australia from South Australia and the Northern Territory was drawn by the British colonists, at the 129th meridian east, without regard to the boundaries of existing Aboriginal groups. Consequently Aboriginal cultural groupings are not limited by it; some "Western Australian" Aboriginal groups extend across the border into other states.

The Karieri people were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara, who once lived around the coastal and inland area around and east of Port Hedland.

The Waanyi people, also spelt Wanyi, Wanji, or Waanji, are an Aboriginal Australian people from south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The Ajabakan were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.

The Yukul, also written Jukul, were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Bingongina or Pinkangarna are a possible indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. However, the name may simply be a former alternative term for Mudburra.

The Banbai are an Indigenous Australian people of New South Wales.

The Punthamara were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

The Maikulan were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. They have sometimes been confused with the Maithakari.

The Alura are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Andakerebina were an Indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Kaiabara are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

The Kula, also known as the Kurnu, were an indigenous Australian people of the state of New South Wales.

The Marra, formerly sometimes referred to as Mara, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Wambaya people, also spelt Umbaia, Wombaia and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory. Their language is the Wambaya language. Their traditional lands have now been taken over by large cattle stations.

The Jingili or Jingulu are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Mudburra, also spelt Mudbara and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Mariu were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their language is unattested, but may have been Miriwung.

The Perrakee are assumed to have been an indigenous Australian tribe, now extinct.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.