Le système des sous-sections matrimoniales dans la famille aborigène d'Australie - article ; n°49 ; vol.31, pg 435-466

Karel Kupka

Description

Journal de la Société des océanistes - Année 1975 - Volume 31 - Numéro 49 - Pages 435-466
32 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: JOURNAL_DE_LA_SOCIETE_DES_OCEANISTES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1975
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Karel Kupka
Le système des sous-sections matrimoniales dans la famille
aborigène d'Australie
In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. N°49, Tome 31, 1975. pp. 435-466.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Kupka Karel. Le système des sous-sections matrimoniales dans la famille aborigène d'Australie. In: Journal de la Société des
océanistes. N°49, Tome 31, 1975. pp. 435-466.
doi : 10.3406/jso.1975.2726
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jso_0300-953X_1975_num_31_49_2726Le système
des sous-sections
matrimoniales
dans la famille aborigène
d'Australie
Prefatory note
I am writing an appreciation of, not a critical commentary on, Dr. Kupka's
numerical representation of the Australian Aborigines' subsection (eight-sec
tion) system. Earlier schemes have been drawn up to facilitate theoretical
analysis, with special reference to the North-East Arnhem Land problem of
integrating an established norm of matrilateral first-degree cross-cousin marr
iage with that system. Recently, practical significance was given to the gene
ral idea, namely, to devise a system for computerizing subsections throughout
the Northern Territory of Australia for Aboriginal census purposes. This
' En Avril 1956, lors de mon deuxième séjour en Australie, j'ai rencontré pour la première fois
le Professeur A. P. Elkin. Il m'a ouvert toute grande la porte du « Department of Anthropology » à
l'Université de Sydney [en me confiant le trousseau de clefs de son propre bureau et de toutes les
dépendances. Depuis, il m'a guidé, conseillé et aidé dans ma recherche.] Il a examiné et commenté
le premier brouillon de cet article. Sa publication a été retardée, non seulement à cause d'un examen
et d'une analyse des écrits et de nombreux documents, mais aussi — et surtout — pour des raisons
d'éthique professionnelle : j'ai collaboré étroitement, en 1970 et 1971, avec les chercheurs de la
« Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration » qui se sont engagés à ne pas rendre
publique (lettre du 18-10-1971) ma contribution avant la fin de 1974. Par réciprocité, je me suis
senti obligé de faire autant quant à leur documentation, d'une utilité capitale pour l'étude ici pré
sentée. Au début de l'année, corrigeant le texte pour la publication, j'ai constaté une erreur dans
l'ajustement des sous-sections dans la Terre d'Arnhem; les moyens de sa correction fourniront la
conclusion de cette étude. L'article est dédié au Prof. A. P. Elkin. (Paris, mai 1975).
435 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES
implied a means of equating subsection names, which often varied from region
to region. The Welfare Department of the Territory drew up a system based
on patri-moieties . Whether named or not, these are always present and
functioning, although the sequence of the four subsections in each of the two varies in twenty per cent of cases, more or less. This is the
. result of the alternate marriage between certain subsections, which is allowed,
and not regarded as irregular.
Dr. Kupka, however, realized the fundamental importance in Aboriginal
thought of matrilineal cycles, and that there were two such cycles, each of
four subsections in unbroken sequence, in every subsection system. Therefore,
he numbered one cycle 1, 2, 3, 4 ; and the other 5, 6, 7, 8 ; a person in
2. being the child of a woman in 1, and a person in 3 being the child of a
woman in 2, and so on. Likewise, the child of a woman in subsection 5,
must be in 6 ; of 6 in 7 and so on.
Then arranging a table of the eight subsections according to the very wide
spread (almost universal) subsection norm of marriage, that is, between certain
of" types of second degree cross-cousins, and also in the fixed matrilineal order
descent", he obtained a practical system which is easy to memorize and
which provides valuable information almost at a glance. In Dr. Kupka9 s
phrase, it has "numerical harmony". Thus, children's subsections follow in
sequence one after the mothers' in each matri-cycle. The patri-moieties, which
are important in ritual and in local organization, are respectively the series
of odd (1, 3, 5, 7) and even (2, 4, 6, 8) numbered subsections. And more
interesting : the serial numbers of the pairs of subsections which constitute
the " ideal" or normal marriage, add up to 9 (1 = 8 ; 2 = 7 ; 3 = 6 ; and so
on) ; further, the alternative recognized inter-marriage, mostly between classi-
ficatory first- degree cross-cousins, is between members of subsections whose
number designations add up to either 7 or 11. In North-East Arnhem Land,
where marriage with mother's brother's daughter, own or classificatory, is the
norm, the number designations of the four marrying pairs add up to 9 in two
cases and to 7 and 11 in one each. The four regular alternative marriages
vary similarly. Thus, irregularities are easily detected, such as endogamy
in cycle or in patri-moiety, and the possibility of what we would regard as
incest, such as brother-sister, father-daughter, or mother-son unions.
I have come across a surprising confirmation of Dr. Kupka' s numerical
system of designating subsections, rather than using letters as has been com
mon for over fifty years. This was anticipatory confirmation, and was made
by R.H. Mathews, at the turn of the century. Moreover, and not unexpect
edly, his system of designating subsections by numbers was based on his
previous recognition (and publication in 1898) of the basic role of the matri-
cycles in the system of sections (four or eight). During the following twelve
years he emphasized and demonstrated this principle in many papers.
However, the significance of the principle was not developed by other writers
for many years, although A. R. Brown made mention of the term cycle to
436 LE SYSTÈME DES SOUS-SECTIONS MATRIMONIALES
indicate the link between the sections of mother and child in 1913 (' Three
Tribes of Western Australia", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
XLIII, p. 148) and again in 1930 ("The Social Organization of Australian
Tribes", Oceania, 1, pp. 38-9). Similarly, Mathews' introduction of the term
section in 1897 instead of class was not adopted until A. R. Brown did so in
1918 ("Notes on the Social Organization of Australian Tribes ", Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XLVIII, pp. 224-5) : in no case,
I regret to say, was any acknowledgment made to R. H. Mathews.
But most surprising was Mathews' innovation of subsection designation
by numbers. As far as I know he only used letters (A* A2, B^B2 and so on)
once and that in an unpublished working paper. Instead he numbered each
group of four subsections in matrilineal descent sequence, that is, in
cycle. He published a few early examples of this around the turn of the
century, but in his working notes he developed the very same system as
Dr. Kupka had done in this essay, with the norm or regular marriage pairs
adding up to 9 and the alternative pairs to 7 or 11. This is indeed startling
Mathews' workiconfirmation. Dr. Kupka could not have known anything of
ng notes.
The Aborigines have shown great ability to adapt and adjust the sub
section system to special circumstances and the author refers to one difficult
example of this. Since the 1940' s North-East Arnhem- Landers have visited
Oenpelli, in Western Arnhem Land — usually on their way through to Darwin.
If they were to stay a while or were invited to take part in ritual, their place
in the local social structure which is based on matri-moieties, would have to
be determined, as their own north-eastern system is based on patri-moieties.
The solution was a reversal of sub-sections. For example, a Koidjog sub
section visitor from the north-east was regarded as Nawamut in the west,
not as Nagadjog which might seem the obvious equivalent. He thus passed
into the subsection of his normal spouse in the north-east. Similarly, he
passed from the Dua patri-moiety of the north-east to the Nangaraitgu matri-
moiety in the west, which for this particular purpose was regarded as Yiritja.
The method of reversal apparently centres on the subsection of the visi
tor's father in the north-eastern system, in which the named patri-moieties
Koidjog' s father in the north-east emphasize his position. Thus, the visiting
is Bulain, and he is equated for this purpose to Nabulain in the Oenpelli
and" strong" matrilineal region. Therefore, the visitor is assmatri-moiety
Nabulain' s son's subsection, but to that of his sister's son, Nawamigned not to
ut. The visitor then becomes the responsibility, as it were, of a local Nabul
ain.
" a mistake" Dr. Kupka is inclined to think that the Aborigines of the 1940's made
especially from the point of view of the reversal of matri-and
patri-moieties. On the contrary : in the particular situation they were logi
cally