J. F. MacLennan uses also the kinship concept as identical with that of blood relationship.[569] But it must be emphatically stated that MacLennan recognizes both the importance of feelings in relation to kinship[570] and the fact that consanguinity was not known to primitive man,[571] although he unfortunately does not develop these two important ideas.
The same use of the concept of kinship (Verwandtschaft) was pointed out above as a mistake of Dargun's. The ideas on kinship of Prof. Frazer and Mr. Thomas were also dealt with above, where it was found that they were not adapted to the complexity of the facts.
Mr. Sidney Hartland rightly sees that kinship is not necessarily identical with consanguinity in our sense. But he wrongly restricts kinship to a specific kind of ideas about community of blood. "Though kinship, however, is not equivalent to blood relationship in our sense of the term, it is founded on the idea of common blood which all within the kin possess, and to which all outside the kin are strangers. A feeling of solidarity runs through the entire kin, so that it may be said without hyperbole that the kin is regarded as one entire life, one body whereof each unit is more than metaphorically a member, a limb. The same blood runs through them all, and 'the blood is the life.'"[572] This definition, illustrated as it is by many examples, is one more instance showing that the idea underlying kinship may be different from the idea of consanguinity in our sense, i. e. consanguinity of blood through procreation. But the affirmation that kinship is always based on some idea of common blood, seems to be not in accord with the facts. Moreover this passage, which is the only one designed to define kinship, is quite inadequate to the importance of the subject, especially in a treatise devoted to primitive paternity, and the result is that in this admirable work the purely sociological side presents some obscurities. The following remark: "Kindred with the father is first and foremost juridical—a social convention"[573] is also incorrect in the light of the foregoing discussion of the legal aspect of kinship.
Dr. Rivers defines: "Kin and Kinship.—These terms should be limited to the relationship ... which can be demonstrated genealogically." This is quite a formalistic definition and does not at all meet the full facts of the case. Moreover it seems that in this way we define the unknown by what is still more indeterminate. For to draw up a genealogy we must first know who are the individuals between whom the line of descent is to be drawn; in other words we must know how fatherhood is defined in a given society. Among the Todas, Dr. Rivers had to ascertain in what way the father of a given child is determined, before he could proceed to draw up the genealogies.[574] In any case the problem of kinship requires in the actual state of things not only a purely formal definition, but a detailed analysis. Much more important as regards the present problem is the way in which Dr. Rivers has described the kinship of the Torres Straits Islanders.[575] In introducing the study of the functions of kin he points to a series of important facts which determine some social aspect of kinship and afford an insight into some of the collective ideas concerning this relation. It must be borne in mind, however, that the set of functions described by Dr. Rivers gives us only a partial knowledge of the social aspect of kinship. The every-day functions corresponding to treatment, behaviour, feeding and so forth, which characterize the intimate or home aspect of the kinship relation, ought not to be omitted. They correspond, according to our analysis, to feelings which make an essential part of the relation in question. The social functions of kin collected by Dr. Rivers, expressing certain duties and privileges of the kinsmen involved, correspond to certain customary norms. A complete collection of all legal norms and all moral rules would be an essential addition. That such moral rules do exist among the Torres Straits Islanders appears certain from the precepts given at initiation to youths.[576]
Messrs. Fison and Howitt in their treatise on Australian kinship[577] do not give anywhere a clear definition of the concept in question. The only place where something like definition is given is page 121, where kinship is said to be "membership in the same tribal division," and where there is an acknowledgment that beyond "kinship" there still lies "personal relationship" between the parent and child. This is true, but this is only the first distinction upon which the actual discussion of the problem ought to be based. That the want of such a discussion is a serious defect in the book is obvious.
The important distinction between kinship (parenté) and consanguinity, which is one of the chief results of the foregoing pages, has been made already by Prof. Durkheim.[578] Nevertheless the exclusive stress that M. Durkheim lays upon the legal aspect of kinship would not seem adapted to the complexity of the facts. "La parenté est essentiellement constitué par des obligations juridiques et morales que la société impose à certains individus." This is not enough. There are certain ideas which affirm a strong bond between parent and child, and undoubtedly these ideas, although neither of legal nor moral character, exercise a strong influence on the relation in question. Possibly the difference could be reduced to the broader sense in which Prof. Durkheim uses the words legal and moral; as his remarks are necessarily short, being contained in a review, it is difficult exactly to ascertain their sense. We have tried to show that, especially in reference to low societies, both these terms must be used with caution, and that a definite sense must be given to them. Besides, I do not share Prof. Durkheim's view that by substituting the word "kinship" for the word "consanguinity" all Morgan's deductions could be rectified.[579] The constitution of the family is something quite different from and much more complicated than the sexual aspect of marriage, and it cannot be at once seen whether the nomenclature of kinship (systems of kinship terms) could be shown to be rooted in the former with the same ease as it can be shown in the latter case. This would require a special study.
M. A. van Gennep also clearly establishes the distinction between parenté sociale and parenté physique.[580] According to our terminology the latter would correspond to physiological consanguinity, while the former would be identical with what we called parental kinship. We see that this distinction is quite in agreement with our theory. Only we called social consanguinity a special case of kinship, where the collective ideas on procreation play the essential rôle. Obviously these ideas may be more or less physiologically correct or erroneous. But where they are completely absent (as in Australia) we prefer not to use the suggestive term consanguinity, and to distinguish these cases from the former we use the term kinship. M. A. van Gennep remarks further that the Central Australians do not know the real cause of procreation in spite of some illusory appearances (we shall deal with this question in detail below and solve it quite in agreement with the author in question); he shows the wide extension of this negative belief in the Australian continent, and speaking of the South Australian tribes, points out that the most important aspect is that they prove the independence of kinship and consanguinity.[581]
The same distinction between consanguinity and kinship is also made by Prof. Westermarck in his discussion of the classificatory system of relationship, and Prof. Westermarck has already brought the important objection against Morgan, viz. that the latter has "given no evidence for the truth of his assumption that the classificatory system" is a system of blood ties,[582] an objection which has appeared also to us as fundamental. Unfortunately, Prof. Westermarck has not given any exhaustive discussion of the concept of kinship.
Finally, I wish to mention a passage by Sir Laurence Gomme, which contains suggestive remarks nearly identical with some views set forth in this chapter. "It is of no use translating a native term as 'father,' if father did not mean to the savage what it means to us. It might mean something so very different. With us fatherhood connotes a definite individual with all sorts of social, economical and political associations, but what does it mean to the savage? It may mean physical fatherhood and nothing more, and physical fatherhood may be a fact of the veriest insignificance. It may mean social fatherhood ... and thus becomes" (in some cases), "much more than we can understand by the term father."[583]
It may also be pointed out for the sake of completeness that in the great majority of human societies parental kinship assumes the form of consanguinity; the ideas that underlie kinship are generally gathered round the facts of procreation. These facts are connected with such deep and powerful instincts and feelings that in the majority of cases they naturally shape and influence the ideas of maternity and paternity. But the few exceptions to this rule which we meet with in very primitive societies are of the highest theoretical interest, both from the evolutionist's and psychologist's point of view. The final remark I would like to make here is on the well-known fact that physiological maternity is much more easily ascertainable than physiological paternity. Paternal kinship, therefore, will much more frequently differ from what we called consanguinity than maternal kinship. But some of the Australian examples and our previous general considerations should make us cautious in laying down a priori any assertion of the purely physiological character of maternity.
The foregoing remarks on kinship, and the sketch of a general definition of kinship given above, of course bear upon the whole of the present investigations, since parental kinship being one of the relationships involved in the individual family, all that refers to this latter unit relates more or less immediately to parental kinship. In the other chapters we attempt to discuss the existence of the individual family, and of those of its features which appear to be universal, and which have, therefore, been adopted as the basis of parental kinship. The general features of the Australian individual family are given in the concluding chapter, and a comparison of the results presented there with the foregoing general definition of kinship[584] will be sufficient to satisfy the first point of this definition, i. e. to prove the existence of individual parental kinship in Australia and to describe its constant elements. In the following chapter (Chap. VII.) attention will be paid to the functions of kin, which correspond to the collective feelings of parents to children. Here we shall discuss the data taken from Australian folk-lore, which bear upon the parental kinship, and shall thus satisfy that part of our definition in which it was laid down that the ideas of kinship must be investigated.
The survey may commence with the Central tribes, the folk-lore of which we know best, owing to the excellent information given by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, subsequently confirmed in its main lines by the joint publication of Herr Strehlow and Frhr. von Leonhardi. In these works we possess a very detailed description of the aboriginal views on conception and birth, which are connected with their totemic beliefs. These views will not be reproduced here in extenso, and the reader is referred to the sources and the special works.[585] The reader is therefore, supposed to be acquainted with the aboriginal views on conception, and only the ideas which in these theories refer directly to our subject, i. e. those underlying parental kinship, will be dealt with here.
Roughly speaking it may be said that these totemic beliefs and theories of conception prevent the aboriginal mind from forming the idea of physiological paternity and even probably weaken the social importance of maternity. For the only cause of pregnancy is that a "spirit-child" entered the body of a woman. "The natives one and all in these tribes believe that the child is the direct result of the entrance into the mother of an ancestral spirit individual. They have no idea of procreation as being directly associated with sexual intercourse, and firmly believe that children can be born without this taking place. There are, for example, in the Arunta country certain stones which are supposed to be charged with spirit children, who can, by magic, be made to enter the bodies of women, or will do so on their own accord."[586] Accordingly no tie of blood can be supposed to exist between the father and his child; there is no room for any ideas of physiological paternity; in other words, using our terminology, social consanguinity between father and child does not exist.[587] This is the most general conclusion that can be drawn from the beliefs quoted. But in connection with this question there are still some details, some controversial points into which we must enter in order to dissipate any doubts as to the correctness of our general conclusions just mentioned, as well as of some subsequent reasonings.
(1) There seems to be some incertitude as to the complete absence among the natives of any knowledge regarding the physiology of procreation. We read in Strehlow,[588] "Übrigens wissen die alten Männer, wie mir versichert wurde, dass die cohabitatio als Grund der Kinderkonzeption anzusehen sei, sagen aber davon den jüngeren Männern und Frauen nichts." This phrase might evoke some doubts as to whether we should attribute so much importance to the alleged ignorance.[589] But according to subsequent information in the same publication,[590] we must not attach to this phrase too much weight. Possibly the knowledge of the old men comes from alien sources; at any rate we see from the explanation given below by Frhr. von Leonhardi that this phrase does not rest on any concrete facts, or any well-founded information. From the point of view of collective ideas it must always be remembered that it is in the social institutions of a given people and in the whole of their beliefs that we must look for the foundation and confirmation of a given creed. It would be a superfluous digression to point out how deeply the totemic theory of conception is connected with all the other beliefs and the whole social life of the Australian aborigines—as this has been done by so many students of the subject, and pre-eminently by Prof. Frazer in his recent work on Totemism and Exogamy. Some doubts might also arise from the fact that the natives apparently know the real process of propagation in the case of the animals. There is undoubtedly some difficulty here; and additional information on this point would be most valuable. Nevertheless the case is not quite hopeless: if we assume that this correct physiological knowledge is of a relatively late origin, it is quite natural that it would arise first in relation to the animal world, because the ideas about man, being the most important and elaborate, would be the most conservative. Anyhow this point requires further elucidation.[591]
(2) We must insist upon another point, which might at first sight cast some shadow of suspicion even on the foregoing one. We read in Spencer and Gillen[592] that sexual intercourse "prepares the mother for the reception and birth also of an already formed spirit-child who inhabits one of the local totem centres." And this belief of "preparation," although at first denied by Strehlow,[593] was substantiated by him after a more careful investigation and emphatically affirmed.[594] Although there might seem to be at first sight some room for doubt, whether this belief does not create some connection between copulation and pregnancy, and so a bridge for the formation of ideas of paternity, a moment's reflection dissipates these doubts. For in this belief there is absolutely nothing that would point to any individual male as the father of the child. We do not know whether, according to the native beliefs, there must be this preparation for each incarnation, or whether it means only that a female cannot conceive without being deflorated. Considering the emphasis with which, according to Spencer and Gillen, the natives deny any causal connection between copulation and birth, the second supposition seems to be the more probable. But even if the first supposition were the right one, it does not imply any knowledge that a given man has contributed to the body or soul of the child. The latter, already formed (although diminutive in form) enters the womb of a woman. We see therefore that our general conclusion of page 209 is by no means contradicted by this detail in the aboriginal beliefs.
(3) In the third place I would like to deal with the question whether the totemic beliefs concerning conception contain the idea of any reincarnation of ancestors, as this point will be subsequently of importance to us. And on this important question there is controversy too. Spencer and Gillen emphatically state: "In the whole of this wide area, the belief that every living member of the tribe is the reincarnation of a spirit ancestor is universal. This belief is just as firmly held by the Urabunna people, who count descent in the female line, as in the Arunta and Warramunga, who count descent in the male line."[595]
On the other hand, the belief in reincarnation is expressly and explicitly denied by Strehlow and Leonhardi: "Den Glauben an eine immer wiederkehrende Reincarnation dieses altjirangamitjina (= alcheringa of Spencer and Gillen), den Spencer and Gillen gefunden haben wollen, hat Herr Strehlow nicht feststellen können."[596] In another passage of the same work the expression of Spencer and Gillen, "in every tribe without exception there exists a firm belief in the reincarnation of ancestors," is simply designated as misleading ("irreführend") by the editor (Frhr. v. Leonhardi).[597]
We seem here to be again at a loss. For behind the mere assertions of both parties there is a considerable amount of fact which seems to corroborate each of them. Spencer and Gillen do not give us bare statements. Such concrete and detailed accounts of beliefs as those quoted below[598] are very cogent. We see by them that Spencer and Gillen's assertion concerning the existence of reincarnation is the general expression of a series of positive facts; as there cannot be any doubt as to the authenticity of the latter, the general assertion of our authors is convincing! But if we inquire more precisely into the nature of this reincarnation we find certain "contradictions" and "inconsistencies" in these beliefs, and we can quite safely agree with Frhr. von Leonhardi that if we "take the expression exactly to the letter"[599] we are compelled to deny the existence of any ideas of reincarnation. The only objection is that any attempt to give "strict" or "exact" sense to aboriginal ideas is completely misplaced. The aborigines are not able to think exactly, and their beliefs do not possess any "exact meaning." And if an attempt be made to interpret them in this way, we shall always fail to understand them and to trace their social bearing. We must accept those beliefs as they stand in their quaint concreteness, full of contradictions and inconsistencies, and endeavour to mould our ideas upon the given folkloristic material, of which an adequate knowledge is indispensable for sociological purposes and gives us a very deep insight into the mechanism of different social groups. So, for instance, the aboriginal beliefs of reincarnation will be found to be of some importance as regards the idea of kinship.
But let us return to our analysis of this aboriginal idea of reincarnation. To define the word exactly the expression of Baron Leonhardi may be accepted; reincarnation means "that the given totemic ancestor himself continually undergoes rebirth." In other words the belief in reincarnation logically defined consists in a strict identification of a given man with a given ancestor. From this it is obvious that one would look in vain for such a belief amongst the Australian savages, who do not know anything of logic, and can neither affirm identity nor perceive contradictions.[600] Instead of identifying two things, they feel only a strong but mystical bond of union between them. In this sense the new-born child is obviously a reincarnation of a given ancestor. For it is "identical" with the spirit-child or ratapa of which it is the incarnation, and this again is "identical" with a given Alcheringa: obviously using the word "identity" in the sense indicated above, i. e. that there is some mystical tie between the Alcheringa and the spirit-child which has emanated from him or her.[601] That this tie exists, we know from the data,[602] from those given by Strehlow as well as from those of Spencer and Gillen.[603] And consequently it may be said that the Central Australians regard each man as the reincarnation of a given ancestor; this being, of course, understood with the restriction here laid down. Thus, any doubt as to this point—namely that all human beings are reincarnations of Alcheringa ancestors—may easily be set at rest.
There still remains, however, the question, much more important to us, whether there be amongst these tribes the belief in the reincarnation of human ancestors. Strehlow's information seems absolutely to deny any idea of repeated reincarnation;[604] a man after death goes to the ltjarilkna-ala, where after a certain time his ghost undergoes perfect and final destruction.[605] A man who has lived his life never returns. I confess that to assume amongst savages the existence of such a neatly defined and categorically-formulated belief in absolute destruction or annihilation seems to me rather suspicious; and there is perhaps some misunderstanding of a rather theoretical character on the part of the Rev. C. Strehlow. Moreover, we are informed by this latter author that besides this belief in annihilation there are ideas according to which the souls of "good" men go to heaven to Altjira,[606] and the souls of the "bad" people are eaten up by the atna ntjkantja.[607] Consequently not all souls perish after death, and reincarnation is from this standpoint not impossible. And even if there were some belief as to this annihilation, it might perfectly well be connected by the natives with the ideas of reincarnation. The primitive mind, as has often been urged, does not perceive contradictions. It is not to negative instances that we must look for an answer, but always to positive ones: if we do find indications of a belief, we are then sure that it exists, even if it were in contradiction with ever so many others. If we do not find it, we can say nothing, and especially we are not justified in proving its absence by showing that it stands in contradiction with any of the beliefs ascertained.
Now Spencer and Gillen adduce in several places concrete instances of beliefs which prove beyond doubt that the idea of the reincarnation of human beings actually exists in the Central tribes. As this point is of some importance in our present study, these instances must be brought forward. One of them is the belief that infants, who either die or are killed, soon undergo reincarnation. Such a belief exists among the Arunta,[608] among the Kaitish and Unmatjera.[609] And again, in another place, such a belief is reported to exist in all the tribes examined by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.[610] That this belief is deeply rooted is shown by the fact that it serves as an excuse for the practice of infanticide; for the natives believe that the same child will soon undergo rebirth from the same mother. It might, nevertheless, be objected that here rebirth is undergone only by persons who died in infancy; and that this has little connection with the reincarnation of ancestors dead long ago. But, first, this belief is the proof of the existence of reincarnation ideas in general, and moreover there are better instances still. There has been found amongst the Urabunna the belief that a person at each reincarnation changes sex, class and totem.[611] The same belief in the alternation of sexes at each successive reincarnation is held amongst the Warramunga.[612] The knowledge of these concrete and detailed beliefs enables us to affirm without hesitation that the general idea of the reincarnation of human beings exists among the Central Australian tribes.[613] A mere assertion on the part of our informants might leave some doubts; but if they adduce these beliefs in detail, the doubts can be only as to their trustworthiness; and this is out of the question in the present case. There are yet other facts confirming the assumption we are dealing with. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen give a detailed account of the wanderings and doings of the ghost after death.[614] They say expressly that the ghost after a time goes to a certain place, where it awaits reincarnation. A similar belief in a land where the souls of the dead await reincarnation has been found in the Adelaide tribes.[615] So that, dividing the problem of reincarnation into two questions—Is there among the Central Australians (1) a belief in a reincarnation of the Alcheringa ancestors? (2) a belief in the reincarnation of human ancestors?—both must be answered in the affirmative.
To sum up our somewhat extensive discussion of the totemic beliefs of conception, we may say that the collective ideas of the Central and North Central Australian[616] aborigines ignore expressly and explicitly any connection of blood between a father and his child, and probably greatly reduce the importance of the maternal blood tie; that even allowing for the greatest amount of physiological knowledge amongst these aborigines, there cannot be any question of paternal consanguinity. We have seen further that in all these Central and North Central tribes (and possibly in many others too) there is an idea of reincarnation, not only of the Alcheringa, but also of the human ancestors; the word reincarnation being used in the sense indicated above, page 214.
So far the results regarding parental, and especially paternal, kinship are purely negative; there is between father and child no consanguinity.[617] But is there no kinship? According to the theory of kinship sketched above, individual parental kinship must be accepted as existing in the Central no less than in all the other Australian tribes, for the reasons already specified. And, as was said above, and will be discussed again, it is even possible on the basis of the evidence extant to give an account of the emotional character of this relation. The greatest difficulty is to know what idea the aborigines themselves form concerning it; in other words, how is fatherhood determined in the collective psychology of the natives? Some indications at least of what we look for may be found.
If we examine the different items of the folk-lore, traditions, beliefs and customs of the Arunta, we can at first sight hardly discover any ideas that bear upon our subject. Fortunately, in the case of some of the Northern tribes, we are in possession of information which appears highly suggestive in regard to our problem. The Gnanji and Umbaia tribes of the Northern territory share the belief in totemic conception with all the more Southern tribes. But amongst them the child is always of the same totem as its father, wherever conception may have taken place. These tribes have a theory to reconcile these two beliefs that apparently are incompatible, viz. descent of totem in paternal line and birth by incarnation of a spirit-child.[618] They believe that spirits of the husband's totem follow the wife wherever the married couple may go, and that one of these spirit individuals enters the woman's body whenever it pleases; no spirit-child of any other totem could enter her. The infant is therefore always of the husband's totem, and it is the reincarnation of this individual spirit which has chosen to follow the man and his wife on their wanderings. In this belief there are, undoubtedly, contained ideas of a strong tie of sympathy, affinity or kinship between the father and his future child. In the first place the spirit-child, which undergoes reincarnation, belongs to the totem of the husband; but that does not as yet create any individual relation between the father and the child, although it constitutes a bond of totemic kinship between them.
Nevertheless it must be remembered that the individual spirit-child, which sometimes has even to follow the married couple on their wanderings, chooses its mother on account of her husband and not in all probability on her own; for it is not of her totem, and it is improbable that the natives assume ties of preference between two beings of different clans, if there are at hand two members of the same clan—the father and the reincarnated child. Now this act of choosing, this special preference of a certain woman on account of her husband, clearly points to a very close tie between father and child. Unfortunately, the writers who report the beliefs in question have not investigated the side we have discussed, and as all hypothetical inferences are dangerous in sociology, we must consider this belief to be highly suggestive but nothing more. Nevertheless, setting one against another the two facts—the social existence of a close tie between father and child on the one hand (as we can affirm it on the ground of the emotional character of this relationship), and the existence of a belief that the reincarnated spirit-child is of the father's totem, and is, so to say, attached to him in his roaming life—it is difficult not to suspect some inner connection between them. Now, if our supposition is right, and if this belief has its social influence in defining fatherhood, it may be said that in the Gnanji and Umbaia tribes the essence of fatherhood is seen in the fact that a given man has determined a given spirit-child to take up its abode in his wife's body, and that the close tie of kinship lies in this mutual affinity or attraction exercised by the man on the spirit-child. This is hypothetical, but we may note another statement of Spencer and Gillen's which appears to bear upon our subject and corroborates our first hypothetical assumption.
We read that in the three coastal tribes of the Northern territory—Binbinga, Anula and Mara—the natives are very clear upon the point that the spirit-children know which are the right lubra for them respectively to enter, and each one deliberately chooses his or her own mother.[619] Now descent in these tribes is strictly paternal both as regards totems and classes.[620] This means that the father determines the class and totem of his child. We must assume, therefore, that the spirit-child chooses its mother chiefly in regard to her husband, i. e. its future father. It may, therefore, be once more repeated here that such an act of preference involves the idea of a very close tie between the spirit-child and the father; whether this idea is a real kinship idea, that is, whether it has its positive influence upon the different functions of the relationship in question, is not mentioned by our informants, and it would be quite vain to speculate upon the subject. But again, putting the two items—i. e. the belief in question and the existence of a close tie of kinship—side by side, it is difficult to deny that a connection between them appears very probable.
A similar social part appears also to be played by the most general belief connected with the question of birth—the belief in reincarnation. The question whether these beliefs may be assumed in the Arunta has been discussed at length, and an affirmative conclusion has been arrived at. Moreover, it has been seen that this belief appears to be almost universal in Australia, and that it is reported by many writers. There seems to be some reason for assuming that this belief may possibly have some bearing on the aboriginal ideas of kinship. As the child is an incarnation not only of a spirit individual, and consequently of an Alcheringa ancestor, but also in the majority of cases of a series of human ancestors, it comes into this world with an already formed personality, and it stands in a definite relation to an Alcheringa ancestor; to a Nanja place and to a given Churinga; it has its place in a totemic group and in a class. We may, therefore, reasonably assume that among other attributes the child brings its individual kinship, derived from some vague ideas about a former life, with it into the world. In other words, the child is probably supposed already at its birth to stand in a definite kinship relation (dating from a mutual previous existence) towards its individual parents. In fact, if the child comes into the world as a member of other social groups, it may be taken as very probable that it comes as the individual kinsman of its father and mother. Father, mother and child have already lived in the past; they may already have stood in a very close relationship; perhaps they have even been members of the same individual family.
This supposition may appear at first sight highly hypothetical; plausible perhaps, but nothing more; yet there are other facts which in considerable measure support it. There is the belief that the spirit part of a child which is killed, or dies in infancy, comes to life again by and by, and undergoes incarnation in the same woman.[621] In this belief we see that the ties of individual kinship, once established, do not give way after death, and that they determine the rebirth of the child. This belief may be a special case of a more general one, viz. that rebirth in all cases is determined by ties of individual kinship established in a former life. There is yet another series of beliefs leading more directly to the same conclusion. I mean the well-known fact that white men were considered to be returned dead relatives, and treated accordingly. We know that there were several cases in which the life of a man was saved by this belief. The best known is the case of Buckley, a run-away convict, who lived about thirty years among the natives. He was treated with the greatest kindness and tenderness by his "relatives."[622] The same tokens of affection are related to have been shown to a settler in the vicinity of Perth by his "parents," who merely to see him would travel more than sixty leagues through a country which was in parts dangerous.[623] In another place we are informed that a white convict identified with a dead relative was presented with a piece of land which "belonged to him by right." Similar statements are numerous.[624] In order to establish the relevancy of these facts to our problem, it may be remarked that the most important features of the beliefs in question are (1) that white men are identified with a given dead individual, (2) that they get then ipso facto a definite place in the tribe, in the local group, and—what is most important as regards the present question—in the individual family. The belief that people after death become white may account for the identification of white men with the dead. But the fact that in ever so many cases a white man was identified with a certain individual, and became thereby entitled to a social position, implies some additional beliefs. One of these beliefs is the idea of rebirth or reincarnation that we have established above in another way. The other collective idea, which must be assumed in order to explain the ease and readiness with which feelings of affection as well as worldly goods were bestowed upon these alleged relatives, is that in the ordinary form in which dead men return to this life, i. e. in reincarnation by birth, each individual brings with him, or her, full social position, including individual relationship. And this is the point at issue in the present discussion. The fact that white men were recognized as dead relatives compels us to assume that children—who were considered as reborn men—were also accepted as relatives. If the natives had not their mind turned that way, if they were not used to identify every new member of their society with some ancestor of their own, could they do it so easily in the case of white men, who were so different from them, and could not present any striking physical similarity? Of course this inference is not a cogent one. But putting side by side all the facts we have gathered: the belief in reincarnation of the dead; the easy recognition of dead relatives in white men; and the promptitude with which, in some cases, the latter were given their places in society, their hunting-grounds, their parents, relatives, and so on—all this allows us to affirm with a high degree of probability that a new-born child was looked upon as a reincarnated member of the tribe, and that an intimate kinship between him and his parents was considered to be established on the ground of kinship in a previous life. Is not the parental affection which was bestowed on some of the white men one of the most astonishing traits in the evidence in question? Of course white men were considered to be immediate reincarnations, or rather a return of the dead in ghost condition; whereas rebirth was a much longer process, and was, perhaps, considered as reincarnation of a long-dead ancestor. Consequently the ties of kinship between a white man and his "relatives" were the repetition of an actual relation which had already existed for the native in his life. Whereas if a reborn child is considered, as we here assume, to be a "previous" kinsman, this kinship is based upon a relation obtaining in some former existence. But it may be urged that if we deal with aboriginal collective psychology no very clear ideas can be expected. The only thing that we assumed here was that the ideas of rebirth, combined with some other specific Australian beliefs, suggest very strongly that children might have been both held, and felt to be, kindred, on the ground that they come with some sort of ready-made personality; and on the ground that, as E. S. Hartland argues, rebirth is the result of some spontaneous action of the creature to be reborn. I think that if we ask for the source of the widespread belief in white men being returned ghosts, and especially for the readiness and ease with which they were accepted into the family and into the tribe—we must presuppose some beliefs and institutions to account for it, and the explanation proposed above seems to me very plausible.[625] But the best example of the ideas of kinship of the magic order is to be found among the tribes studied and described by W. E. Roth.
Before we proceed to the North Queensland tribes, there may be mentioned some customs of the couvade type, referring to the Central tribes. These customs, as has been said above, express an intimate connection of a mystic character between father and child. They also involve a considerable amount of paternal affection and care for the welfare of the offspring, as they expose the father to various inconveniences, privations and hardships for the benefit of the child. Thus we read that among the Central tribes the father has to observe certain taboos and restrictions during the pregnancy of his wife, otherwise she would have a difficult confinement.[626] This only shows a connection between the behaviour of the man and the act of birth. But we read in another place that the non-observance of certain hunting taboos by the man during the pregnancy of his wife would have baleful consequences for the offspring.[627] We are informed, also, of a few functions of parental kin expressed in different customs which accentuate the intimacy of this relation. Thus the mother plays some part in the initiation ceremonies,[628] as well as in mourning and funerals. Concerning the important social functions of the father, I may quote what Mr. R. H. Mathews writes about the Central tribes: "The privilege of working incantations, making rain, performing initiatory ceremonies, and other important functions, descends from the men of the tribe to the sons."[629] Moreover all the ceremonies in common with totems "are likewise handed down through the men."[630] We see from this that many important social functions descend from father to son. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen report that the position of the Alatunja is hereditary amongst the Arunta.[631] And similarly the position of the headman is hereditary amongst the Northern tribes.[632] All these facts serve on the one hand socially to define individual kinship, and on the other to show that there exist certain ideas of a mystic bond between father and child. How far these ideas, as expressed in the customs of the couvade type, harmonize with the ideas dealt with above, it is quite impossible to know. It may be said that in both respects we have hints showing the existence of ideas on kinship, but that we can by no means go beyond mere supposition when we try to reconstruct these ideas and to find some mutual connection. Let us now pass to the other tribes.
The belief in a supernatural cause of pregnancy is spread not only all over the Central and North Central area, i. e. among all the tribes included in the researches of Spencer and Gillen.[633] The same ignorance of physiological fatherhood is found in the whole of the Northern territory, in Queensland, and probably in West Australia. We read that among the tribes of the North-West territory of South Australia (Port Darwin and Daly River) "conception is not regarded as a direct result of cohabitation."[634] And we read in Dr. Frazer's new work: "The view is shared by all the tribes of Central and Northern Australia. In point of fact, I am informed by the Bishop of North Queensland (Dr. Frodsham) that the opinion is held by all the tribes with which he is acquainted both in North Queensland and in Central Australia, including the Arunta; not only are the natives in their savage states ignorant of the true cause of conception, but they do not readily believe it even after their admission into mission stations, and their incredulity has to be reckoned with in the efforts of the clergy to introduce a higher standard of sexual morality among them."[635] This is a very strong proof of the depth of these beliefs, and of the absolute ignorance of the natives on this point.[636] In the South-Eastern region this belief is to be found as far as the Northern part of New South Wales. We have statements of Mrs. Parker[637] which, although not very clear, seem at least to imply a great amount of magical beliefs as to procreation, if not complete ignorance of the physiological part borne by the father. With regard to the Western tribes, Mrs. Bates writes in a letter to Mr. Lang[638]: "They did not believe that procreation had anything to do with conception."
That in spite of this absence of any kind of consanguinity, especially in the father's case, there exists in the Queensland tribes an individual kinship relation between both parents and their children, is clear from the statements collected on page 245, and from the conclusion on page 249, to which the reader may be referred, as well as to the theoretical conclusion on page 198. Looking at the rich and interesting collection of folk-lore of these tribes given by Mr. W. E. Roth, it will be possible to find the way in which fatherhood is determined by the animistic ideas of the aborigines. As just said, among the North-West Central Queensland tribes, the causal nexus between conception and copulation is not known. We read in Roth that, according to aboriginal ideas, there are several ways in which a child may enter a woman's body: it may be inserted into her in a dream; she may be told by a man that she will be pregnant and so on. But in whatever mode the child has come, "the recognized husband accepts it as his own without demur."[639] This phrase seems to point to the fact that a man has certain ways of recognizing a child as his own, and ideas under which he conceives this tie.
In fact we read that man possesses several "souls" or vital principles. One of them, ngai, leaves the body soon after death; if the deceased was a male his ngai "passes into his children, both boys and girls equally." The ngai of a female goes to her sister or passes away. Nobody has a ngai before his father dies, but receives his father's ngai after the latter's death.[640] This is an important connection, which by itself might very well serve to establish the most intimate tie of kinship. The child is supposed to be its father's spirit's heir. It shares in his most personal and individual element. Is this spiritual communion not something quite as strong and deep as any community of blood?
In another tribe of this area there is a similar belief concerning the choi (another "soul"). The aborigines of Pennefather River believe that babies are made out of swamp mud and then inserted into the wombs of women by a being called Anjea. Now it is particularly important for us to note that Anjea animates the baby with a piece of its father's spirit if it is a boy, and with a piece of its father's sister's spirit if it is a girl. For each new baby Anjea provides a new piece of spirit. But he does not take these pieces from the spirit of the living father or his sister. He has a special source from which to take it; he takes it from the father's or father's sister's afterbirth. When a child is born a portion of its spirit stays in its afterbirth. Hence the grandmother takes the afterbirth and buries it in the sand, and marks the place by thrusting sticks into the ground. So when Anjea comes along and sees it, he knows where to look for the father's (or father's sister's) spirit, which he wants in order to animate the new baby. And in this way all babies are animated by a spiritual part of their father or paternal aunts.[641]
Both these examples illustrate perfectly well the general definition of kinship ideas we have given above. Here the relation between father and child is established in the native ideas by a purely spiritual connection. But obviously this connection is a very important one. The deep tie between a man and his child is here explicitly indicated and not inferred by us, as in the foregoing cases, in which we could only state that the beliefs and facts point to such a tie. In the present case the father's spirit is the material from which the child's soul is to be built up. It is not his bodily germ that procreates the child, but his spiritual germ. What does it matter that the mother gives birth to the child? The latter is animated by the father's (or father's sister's) spirit, and this spiritual connection is of course as strong a bond of kinship as can possibly be imagined.
There is in the second of these examples a complication produced by the fact that a female child is not animated by her father's, but by her father's sister's, spirit. But this complication is more apparent than real. We must always remember that the aborigines do not think in clearly defined ideas, and that there is always a question rather of some broad emotional connection than of a tie logically apprehended. And here the connection between the female children and their father is broadly marked by the spiritual tie between his sister and the children. It may be said that "spiritual propagation" follows the male line exclusively, for all children are animated by a spirit taken from their father or his sister.
We have still a few examples to quote where there appears to be involved a tie between father and child established on other grounds than the sexual act. In some of the North Queensland tribes (Cairns district) "the acceptance of food from a man by a woman was not merely regarded as a marriage ceremony, but as the actual cause of conception."[642] A similar belief obtains among the Larrekiya and Wogait of Port Darwin. "The old men say that there is an evil spirit who takes babies from a big fire and places them in the wombs of women, who must then give birth to them. When in the ordinary course of events a man is out hunting and kills game or gathers vegetable food, he gives it to his wife, who must eat it, believing that the food will cause her to conceive and bring forth a child. When the child is born, it may on no account partake of the particular food which produced conception until it has got its first teeth."[643] In these cases we might look also for some material from which the ideas of individual paternity might have been evolved, but this is a supposition merely, which obviously is much less well founded than our inferences referring to the Central and North Central tribes.
Let us turn to another portion of the continent, to the South-Eastern tribes, where the natives have to a certain extent inverse ideas on procreation. They seem to know that conception is due to copulation. But they exaggerate the father's part. The children are begotten "by him exclusively; the mother receives only the germ and nurtures it; the aborigines ... never for a moment feel any doubt ... that the children originate solely from the male parent, and only owe their infantine nurture to their mother."[644] This theory is not a logical and consistent one, but none of the aboriginal views possess these qualities! But this theory of procreation is quite clear and categorical in acknowledging exclusively what seems to the native mind important for the formation of consanguineous ties in the act of procreation. Let us adduce the examples in detail, as they are very instructive. The Wirdajuri nation[645] believe that the child "emanates from the father solely, being only nurtured by its mother." There is a strong tie of kinship between the child and the father; the latter nevertheless has not the right to dispose of his daughter in marriage; that is done by the mother and the mother's brother. We see here that curiously enough strong paternal consanguinity coincides with weakening of the patria potestas (provided the information be accurate on both points). For disposal of the daughter is one of the chief features of a parent's authority over the child. Among the Wolgal the child belongs to the father, and he only "gives it to his wife to take care of for him."[646] This is probably an interpretation of the facts of procreation. In this tribe the father disposes of his daughter; in fact "he could do what he liked" with her on the ground of his exclusive right to the child. Here, apparently, the ideas on kinship enhance the paternal authority. A strong proof of this unilateral paternal consanguinity is given yet more in detail in the case of the Kulin tribes. There, according to a native expression, "the child comes from the man, the woman only takes care of it."[647] And when once an old man wished to emphasize his right and authority over his son he said: "Listen to me! I am here, and there you stand with my body."[648] This is clearly a claim to kinship on the basis of consanguinity. It is interesting to note that in the examples just quoted this consanguineous kinship seems to give some claims to authority. Analogously amongst the Yuin the child belonged to his father "because his wife merely takes care of his children for him."[649]
Withal this information leaves us in the dark about the detailed working of these ideas. Especially we are not quite clear whether the assertions of "being of the same body," of "belonging to him," etc., do actually refer to the act of procreation, whether they form an interpretation of this act, or whether they have quite a different basis; although it seems from the expressions quoted above that the first alternative is the right one. On the other hand, when we read that the mother only nurtures the child, that she merely takes care of it and so on, does it mean that the aboriginal mind decrees or interprets that during pregnancy the mother is a kind of nurse only, that she is the soil in which the father has deposited the seed? And as the relation between the plant and the seed is closer than that between the plant and the soil, so the relation between father and child is nearer than that between mother and child? All this is left to hypothesis, strongly supported by the statements, but unfortunately not affirmed by them in a clear and unambiguous way. We are not at all sure whether all these ideas, instead of being theories of the act of impregnation, have not some mystic, legendary basis like the beliefs of the Queenslander dealt with above.
A survey of different points of Australian folk-lore has been made in order to find some kinship ideas corresponding to the definition given on page 183. From all the results obtained, the most certain and best founded one is the negative fact that the majority of the Australian tribes are wholly ignorant of the physiological process of procreation. This result, although at first sight a negative one, leads, when viewed in the proper light, to sociological conclusions of some importance. In regard to the discussion on consanguinity (given pp. 176 sqq.), it follows from this fact that we cannot speak of paternal consanguinity among these tribes in the social sense of this word,[650] and that the individual tie of kinship, which does nevertheless exist between father and child, must be conceived of by the natives in some different way. This conclusion is also very important, for it obviously tears asunder the intimate connection between the sexual side of marriage and kinship, a connection that has often been assumed hitherto. The lack of sexual exclusiveness found in Australia does not affect the structure of the individual family, of which kinship is the index. Waiving the question whether this holds good for primitive mankind in general, it may be assumed as quite a final result for the majority of Australian tribes.