Kinship in Australian Aborigines the Individuality Promoted

¶ … Kinship in Australian Aborigines

The individuality promoted by American and other Westernized societies makes one often forget the kinship, extended-family-based networks present in most other societies, and especially those in which the main way of life revolves around foraging and horticulture systems. Yet kinship exists, and it is present in many communities, one of which is the Australian Aboriginal community located throughout the continent, but focused mostly in the Northern Territory in Australia. The community has been indigenous to the continent since before its settlement by the Dutch and British, and continues to thrive to this day, mainly due to its distinct way of life. This way includes the concept of kinship, a strategy for keeping families together so that they may better fare during harsh times, be they social, political, or economic. This paper will explore the aboriginal kinship system in detail, and will describe its impact on the culture, as well as see whether there is such a system present in the American society, or whether this is truly a unique phenomenon to this community.

Description of the Kinship System

The aborigines in Australia have very complex systems of kinship, many argue, the most complex in the world. Their systems ensure that all aborigines have a sense of belonging, of community, and of rules and norms. In fact, aborigine children are well schooled in understanding this complexity as it promotes structure and understanding of both old and new ways, and gives aborigines an exact guide as to how to behave towards every single person in the community, regardless of age, gender or rank. Understanding kinship is thus a form of showing respect to others. Furthermore, kinship is an integral part of Aboriginal Law, a rigorous structure guarding the old ways of live of the community. According to studies,

"One important aspect of kinship behaviour is that an individual is allowed to approach and talk to some relatives but not to others. These avoidance rules applied to both blood and class relatives. It does not mean that these people dislike each other. The rule exists to maintain respect between certain classes of relatives. If two people who are not permitted to speak wanted to exchange information, they have to find a third person to pass on this information." (Flick, 2012)

As seen from the description above, many kinship rules may seem strange and different to societies such as that in which we live, but they are in place in order to maintain order and, above all, as above-mentioned, respect. An additional aspect of kinship relations is that people often share food and gifts, as well as play tricks on each other, and in fact, this is a daily occurrence between certain relatives.

Kinship Systems' Impact on Culture

One of the main ways in which kinship affects the cultural interactions of thee community is that it makes and breaks linkages between certain individuals, thereby regulating these said interactions. Thus, the impact of kinship on culture has been present for generations, and acts as a barrier against the deregulatory forces of the modern world. Furthermore, anything from classificatory kinship to reciprocity in marriage is regarded as a part of kinship, a sole rung in a complex system, and which impacts the culture by promoting close relationships in which everyone is related, in which everyone can trust everyone else, and in which the nuclear family acts as a base for any kind of interaction and change. Thus, the impact of this system on the aboriginal culture has been great, as it both thwarts progress (cultural, that is), and keeps the ways of old in order to ensure that the community can handle any kind of hardship.