Australian Aborigines #1

4.5 Marriages

Each tribe was divided into a number of small social groups, but in the case of

weddings in two main groups called moieties (literally: half). Let's call them A and

B. The group A persons can not marry people of the same group. a man at a young age and married (through a final ceremony) when

It was eleven or twelve years and reached puberty.

Weddings for capture or for a romantic getaway were common, but these were

against the law of the tribe and were punished.

In Aboriginal societies it was customary that men could have more than one

wife.

However, while this gives the impression that their company was chauvinistic and

that women were treated as objects, women and men was

taught through important stories of the Dreamtime, that between husband and wife

there was a strong interdependence based on love and respect.

The marriage took place when the people of a tribe coming from different clans

They gathered in ceremonies time.

The rite was probably a handling-over ceremony, which took place in

certain places. The Sholhaven Region in Coolangatta Mountains was a

traditional place suitable for weddings. This is because, according to some stories of

Dreamtime, special Great Ancestors could have married there and

also because there was a tradition that thousands of couples were married at that

site. structures and less specialized laws.

The stateless society are divided into chiefdoms and acephalous. In the first there is a

visible leaders (eg .: King) and the title is inherited by birth.

In the second there is a visible leader and the power can be in the hands of one or

more tips. Aboriginal societies belonged to the headless stateless society.