Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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n ofclass C : their children will be-long to class D. Suppose thesechildren are a boy and a girl,and they both marry, then thel^oys children will belong toclass A. the girls to class C, andso on. There are various modi-fications and exceptions, but theabove illustrates the system.There is another division intototem-kin; this is quite inde-pendent of the class division,though one totem is usually con-fined to a phratry. The totem-kin are represented each by abadge, usually an animal orplant, which the members re-frain from eating (except at times ceremonially); and it is oftenbelieved that a supernatural bond exists between the membersof the totem and the species of the totem animal or plant.Members of the same totem may not marry, and the totem isinherited sometimes from the mother, sometimes from the father.Wives are gained by exchanging a sister, by elopement, or bykidna^iping; in the latter case a inore or less friendly duelwith the womans relatives ensues. Boys undergo a series of
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Fig. 97.—Message-sticks fromN. Queensland. AUSTRALIA 115 initifition ceremonies during which teeth are extracted, scarsmade, circumcision and (in some localities only) the miJca opera-tion is performed. The disposal of the dead is most commonlyby burial; but exposure on a stage or in a tree is the rule amongthe central tribes. Cremation is found in New South Wales, andin parts the dead are eaten (east of Gulf). Mourning is usuallyexpressed by gashing the body, painting, shaving the head, andthe like. Writing is unknown, but notched sticks are used as aidsto memory (figs. 37 and 97). As far as our evidence goes, however, it

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