Australian Aborigines’ culture essay
It is known that kinship system is considered to be a fundamental principle of organizing people into different social groups, where they perform different roles. As this form of organization which is based on parentage and marriage can be found in every human society, kinship system is of great importance. Today, in modern industrial communities family structures are rather weakened because of the dominance of the market economy and the activity of social services. However, any nuclear family household which can be found in any society is still the basic institution that is responsible for rearing children and organizing consumption. (Nowak & Laird, 2010, p.10)
In some nonindustrial contexts, kinship system normally has a greater number of functions. In this case, kinship units usually serve as the main units of production, representation of political authority and even as religious structures for the worship of spiritual beings, who are themselves considered to be the members of the kinship system. Kinship systems in foraging and horticultural based societies provide support for people in all stages of their life.
My goal in this paper is to identify and describe the kinship system of Australian Aborigines’ culture.
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL KINSHIP SYSTEM AND ITS MEANING
According to the anthropological data, Australian aboriginal kinship is one of the most complex kinship systems in the world. Some experts consider that it is the basis of all social interaction. It is found that the kinship system of any particular tribe can control and maintain the network of interpersonal relationships in the tribe and direct its members in their interactions with other members of the tribe. Moreover, Australian Aboriginal kinship is not only the system of law which governs social interactions, such as marriage, in traditional Australian Aboriginal culture, it is also an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group located on the territory of Australia.
THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL KINSHIP
Aboriginal kinship system of Australia has the following characteristic features:
As kinship is an integral part of the social organization, the tribal members are divided into several categories with special names used in each tribe. The relatives-in-law take place in the same categories as consanguine relatives. The husbands and wives are related to each other as kin.
In aboriginal Australia, classificatory kinship is used. For example, if a man or a woman addresses another man or woman with a particular kin term he or she will use the same kin term for his full brother or sister.
The status of mother’s brother and father’s sister is a so-called extension of the sibling relationship because it has some special obligations and responsibilities in nearly all Australian Aboriginal societies. Such people often have an important part in the rituals of their brother’s son or daughter, or sister’s son or daughter. Moreover, there is always some attachment in the relationship between a man and his father’s sister. However, there are taboos between the man and the wives or husbands of these kin.
The basic kinship in aboriginal Australia is the nuclear family. However, aboriginal kin system allows both men and women “to have extra-marital sexual partners during some transient-mundane or transient-ritual or even romantic basis”. In some areas of Australia, for example in the Dieri, the provision of secondary wives can be found and in western Arnhem Land, the provision of secondary husbands can be found. (Monroe, 2010, para.4)
SOME FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CULTURE
It is known that Australian aboriginal culture is one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Its main peculiarity is that it is closely connected with nature. According to the traditional aboriginal belief system, nature and landscape are of the same importance as the Bible in Christian world. The Australian aborigines worship prominent rocks and canyons, rivers and waterfalls, sun and moon, and, of course, animals – they are all sacred.
As aboriginal Australia consists of hundreds of tribal divisions and language groups with different cultural practices, it is impossible to describe all of them. However, it is easy to identify the main common features of their cultures. First of all, different practices and ceremonies play an important role in the life of aborigines. Secondly, the belief systems of Australian aborigines are based on spiritual values, including Rainbow Serpent, the main ancestral being, Baiame and Bunjil, the main creator spirits. Besides, music and art are unique in aboriginal Australia.(Monroe, 2010, para.3)
The kinship system impacts the way this culture behaves. For example, numerous ceremonies are conducted by certain kin members, one of them is Bora, an initiation ceremony when aboriginal boys become men. One more example is participation in music festivals when the Arnhem Land people (only men) play Yolngu. Also, the Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people of western Victoria participate in the traditional game of Marn Grook, a type of football played only by men from different groups. In our society, kinship also plays an important role. Kinship can impact individual’s behavior and actions.
The Basseri of Iran
At the same time, it is not only kinship that affects the cultural development of the society. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the Basseri of Iran, the tribe that has undergone considerable changes in the course of its history, especially during the 20th century resulting in considerable social, economic and political changes within the tribe. The Basseri of Iran are a pastoral, nomadic tribe in Iran. However, today, the Basseri have started to change their traditional lifestyle, social and political system. Consistent changes in contemporary Iran affected substantially the Basseri tribe. In fact, today, the Basseri undergo considerable changes that have already changed their role in the political life of Iran. In addition, today, the Basseri undergo consistent social changes that affect the structure of their tribe and social relations with the tribe as well as the lifestyle of the Basseri.
First of all, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the traditional social system of the Basseri was grounded on tents. A tent is a basic social unit of Basseri. The leader of the tent deals with the formal officers of the tribe, villagers and other strangers. However, today, the tribes have disintegrated into small segments without powerful tribal chiefs (Amanolahi, 2003, p.268). Therefore, the Basseri tribe has started to fell apart since the first half of the 20th century, whereas today this process has become even stronger.
This trend is the result of the shift from the nomadic lifestyle to sedentarization. The Basseri is a traditional, nomadic tribe but the Basseri were forcefully sedentarized in their summer and winter territories in 1936. One of the major consequences of forced sedentarizzation was that, with the tribesmen no longer mobile, it became easy for the state to supervise their activities (Amanolahi, 2003, p.270). Along with the change of the traditional lifestyle of the Basseri, the tribe has undergone consistent social changes that have been already mentioned above. The tribe could not exist anymore as the nomadic tribe and its traditional social structure has started to change because the Basseri stayed in their settlements that slowed down their communication between different segments of the tribe. Each segment has started to develop as an independent unit of the tribe and the close connections that existed within the tribe have weakened under the impact of the sedentarization of the tribe.
At the same time, the tribe has virtually stopped its nomadic lifestyle. Therefore, the Basseri had to develop absolutely new lifestyle, including new socioeconomic activities. The tribe could not maintain its pastoral, nomadic lifestyle and should focus on new socioeconomic activities, which in their turn affected consistently the social stratification of segments of the tribe as leaders of tents grew richer compared to other members of the tribe. The traditional exchange of products between the Basseri and sedentary population of Iran changed too because the Basseri became similar to the rest of the sedentary population of Iran and lost its nomadic traditions. Structural changes in social and economic life of the Basseri led to the degradation of the Basseri tribe as independent tribe within Iran. Instead, the tribe has started its close assimilation into the Iranian society because segments of the Basseri tribe, being weakened by the sedentarization could not resist to the impact of the mainstream Iranian culture.
Furthermore, the process of urbanization has reduced the traditional political power of the pastoral nomads that they no longer play their traditional political role (Amanolahi, 2003, p.268). The urbanization was the effect of socioeconomic changes in Iran. As Iranian economy progress and became more and more industrialized, the agriculture started to lose its role as the main branch of the national economy. In addition, such tribes as the Basseri had to change their lifestyle to survive in the competitive economic struggle. Many Basseri had to settle in cities and towns, where they could find some job and survive, while traditional lifestyle put them on the edge of survival.
As the Basseri tribe has become segmented and weakened by the sedentarization and urbanization, its political power has started to decrease too. The pastoral nomads have lost not only their political power in relation to the central government, but their social organization and their way of life have changed radically (Amanolahi, 2003, p.269). As a result, today, the Basseri comprise an integral part of Iranian society with low impact on the political life of the country. They cannot lead the traditional nomadic lifestyle any more. Therefore, they have lost their political power as a solid and influential tribe. The Basseri tribe is just falling apart that naturally weakens its political and economic power, while, in a long-run perspective, the tribe is likely to face the problem of the full assimilation into the mainstream Iranian culture to the extent that the Basseri can lose their cultural and national identity.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that today anthropologists are greatly interested in the comparative study of kinship systems in order to discover some universal patterns and the variable forms that they take in specific societies. In this respect, the experience of the study of the Basseri is particularly noteworthy for the Basseri have undergone considerable changes in the course of the 20th century. The forced sedentarization and urbanization changed the traditional lifestyle of the Basseri. They are not as nomad as they used to be in the past. Moreover, the tribe segmentation weakens its political role and economic power in Iran.
