The Home of the Aborigines

In my part I want to inform you about the social structure, language, childhood and the family life of the Aborigines.

Social structure :

Typically for the Aborigines is to live together in a clan. One clan consists of 30 to 50 members. Every clan owns its own land on which they have their own property law. This land is their own hunting area on which they find all things for their livelihood.
About 25 until 35 clans form a tribe. The elderly of a tribe are the leading persons who advice family chiefs or clan chiefs. The elderly have a very good knowledge about myths and worship activities.

Language of the Aborigines:

The Aborigines haven’t got a uniform language. Anthropologists estimate that there existed 500 to 600 Aboriginal races and at least 200 different languages before the Europeans arrived in Australia. Aborigines are said to be masters in learning languages who often speak four or five languages.Today over 50 known languages are not spoken any more, because many of them died out.
A sign language that was developed for the understanding between the different races slowly fell into oblivion and almost died out completely.
None of the Aboriginal races knew any kind of written language and because of this they painted pictures on stones in order to express their dreams and rules.

The childhood:

When a mother gives birth to her baby only one or two women are allowed to be there. In some tribes the father are told the sex of the baby by a so called „message stick". Is the baby a boy the message stick is a very long one, is it a girl the message stick is a little shorter. Until the age of one year the baby hasn’t got a name. The Aborigines say before a child isn’t one year old it isn’t a ‘real person’ .
Although the mother has got the most responsibility all members of the group, including the men, take care of the child in the first years of its life .
At the age of ten until fifteen years the boys and girls become men and women. The Aborigines celebrate it in a special cerenomy which has got a religious background, the so-called initation.

1) Girl’s initation:

The girl is taken into the bush by an older women of her family. There the body is painted with earth colours and her arms covered with animal skins. After the painting is finished the girl has to sit up in the tree for the next few days. Only for sleeping the girl is allowed to come down from the tree.
After this the girl is given a skirt of emu feathers which she has to wear until she gets married. The next part of the initation is that two young men of the tribe join in. Now the girl has to hold a branch with two small cakes at each end. Task of the men is to bite a piece of the cake and spit it into the fire, than they begin to dance. Now the branch is burned and the girl is taken back to her father. These initiations are always a big celebration and the girl knows that she is ready to marry.

2) Boy’s initation :

The older men of a group or clan take a lot of boys away from the camp and pull out their beard. The important difference to the girl’s initation is that the boys are not allowed to eat or to sleep for the next three days. This is repeated three more times over the next six months. In this time the boys learn a lot about sacred stories, dances and laws before they become men.

Family life:

One interesting aspects is that a woman has got more than one husband in her life and the first men are sometimes 30 years older than herself. However, she can choose her next husbands if she obeys the law. Furthermore if a woman has got many children it will improve her status. If the woman is unable to have children on her own, the other will bring her a child.

Another important ritual is connected with the death of an Aborigine. If an Aboriginel dies, his body is put into a cloth of tree barks. Than either the body is burried or the body is put on the top of a tree. After one year the Aborigine rescue the bones. Now the bones are coloured with red paint and than they put them into a cave according to a special ritual.