THE FAMILY AMONG THE
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

FOREWORD[v]

The importance of the subject treated in this study,as well as the prominent part played by the Australianevidence in the problem of kinship, will, it is believed,amply justify a detailed inquiry into the institution ofthe family in Australia. It is, however, always desirablefor a monograph like the present one, besides being amere collection and description of facts, to have a sufficientlywide theoretical scope. It ought to demonstratesome general principle upon the particular exampletreated, and to approach the problem from a new standpoint.

I wish here shortly to indicate how far a slight andimperfect attempt in this direction has been made. Indescribing the facts of family life in Australia I havetried to show that even if the problems of origins anddevelopment of an institution be put aside and theinquiry be limited to the actual facts (in this case to theactual working of the aboriginal kinship organization),there are plenty of subjects of great theoretical importance,some of which, as yet not fully considered bysociologists. On the other hand, I have tried to show thatin dealing with purely sociological problems it is necessary,in order to do justice to the complexity and fulness ofsocial phenomena, to draw into the field of inquiry aseries of facts often hitherto partially or completelyneglected. The facts of daily life, the emotional sideof family relations, the magico-religious ideas of theaborigines about kinship and sexual relations, customaryas well as legal norms—all these factors must be takenimpartially into careful consideration in order to give thefull picture of an institution as it embraces living man in...