Abstract
THE chief object of Mr. Fison's recently published memoir on Kamilaroi marriage, descent, and relationship, is “to trace the formation of the exogamous intermarrying divisions which have been found among so many savage and barbaric tribes of the present day,” and to show that what Mr. Morgan calls the punaluan family, with the “Turanian” system of kinship, logically results from them. His coadjutor, Mr. Howitt, though he has had some interesting information to give about the Kurnai tribes of Gippsland, has had the same chief object; so that the work the two have produced is much more a polemic on behalf of Mr. Morgan than a record of new Australian facts. We must begin, then, by stating what Mr. Morgan's theories are (so far as the work before us is concerned with them), and indicating, and estimating the value of, the evidence on which they rest.
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References
"Kamilaroi and Kurnai: Group Marriage, and Relationship, and Marriage by Elopement; also the Kurnai Tribe, their Customs in Peace and War." By Lorimer Fison, M.A., and A. W. Howitt, F.G.S. With an Introduction by Lewis H. Morgan, LL.D. (George Robertson: Melbourne, 1880.)
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MACLENNAN, D. Primitive Marriage Customs 1 . Nature 23, 584–588 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023584a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023584a0