
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE
- Contents
- YARRUUN PARPUR TARNEEN
- CHAPTER I TRIBES
- CHAPTER II POPULATION
- CHAPTER III CHIEFS
- CHAPTER IV PROPERTY
- CHAPTER V CLOTHING
- CHAPTER VI HABITATIONS
- CHAPTER VII CLEANLINESS
- CHAPTER VIII DOMESTIC FURNITURE
- CHAPTER IX COOKING AND FOOD
- CHAPTER X TOOLS
- CHAPTER XI LAWS OF MARRIAGE
- CHAPTER XII CHILDREN
- CHAPTER XIII NAMES OF PERSONS
- CHAPTER XIV SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES
- CHAPTER XV DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAPTER XVI AVENGING OF DEATH
- CHAPTER XVII GREAT MEETINGS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMUSEMENTS
- CHAPTER XIX WEAPONS
- CHAPTER XX ANIMALS
- CHAPTER XXI METEOROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ETC
- CHAPTER XXII NATIVE MOUNDS
- CHAPTER XXIII ANECDOTES
- CONVEYANCE, BY PRINCIPAL CHIEFS TO JOHN BATMAN, OF 100,000 ACRES OF LAND, BETWEEN GEELONG AND QUEENSCLIFF
- VOCABULARIES.—WORDS; ANIMALS; RELATIONSHIPS; NAMES OF PLACES; GRAMMAR AND SENTENCES; NUMERALS
- NOTES
CHAPTER IV - PROPERTY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE
- Contents
- YARRUUN PARPUR TARNEEN
- CHAPTER I TRIBES
- CHAPTER II POPULATION
- CHAPTER III CHIEFS
- CHAPTER IV PROPERTY
- CHAPTER V CLOTHING
- CHAPTER VI HABITATIONS
- CHAPTER VII CLEANLINESS
- CHAPTER VIII DOMESTIC FURNITURE
- CHAPTER IX COOKING AND FOOD
- CHAPTER X TOOLS
- CHAPTER XI LAWS OF MARRIAGE
- CHAPTER XII CHILDREN
- CHAPTER XIII NAMES OF PERSONS
- CHAPTER XIV SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES
- CHAPTER XV DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAPTER XVI AVENGING OF DEATH
- CHAPTER XVII GREAT MEETINGS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMUSEMENTS
- CHAPTER XIX WEAPONS
- CHAPTER XX ANIMALS
- CHAPTER XXI METEOROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ETC
- CHAPTER XXII NATIVE MOUNDS
- CHAPTER XXIII ANECDOTES
- CONVEYANCE, BY PRINCIPAL CHIEFS TO JOHN BATMAN, OF 100,000 ACRES OF LAND, BETWEEN GEELONG AND QUEENSCLIFF
- VOCABULARIES.—WORDS; ANIMALS; RELATIONSHIPS; NAMES OF PLACES; GRAMMAR AND SENTENCES; NUMERALS
- NOTES
Summary
The territory belonging to a tribe is divided among its members. Each family has the exclusive right by inheritance to a part of the tribal lands, which is named after its owner; and his family and every child born on it must be named after something on the property. When the boundaries with neighbours meet at lakes or swamps celebrated for game, well-defined portions of these are marked out and any poaching or trespassing is severely punished. No individual of any neighbouring tribe or family can hunt or walk over the property of another without permission from the head of the family owning the land. A stranger found trespassing can legally be put to death.
When the father of a family dies, his landed property is divided equally among his widow and his children of both sexes. Should a child of another family have been born on the estate, it is looked upon as one of the family, and it has an equal right with them to a share of the land, if it has attained the age of six months at the death of the proprietor. This adopted child is called a ‘woork’, and calls the owner of the property by the same name. Should a family die out without leaving ‘flesh relatives’ of any degree, the chief divides the land among the contiguous families after the lapse of one year from the death of the last survivor. During that period the name of the property, being the same as the name of its last owner, is never mentioned, but is called ‘Yaamp yaamp’ in the Ohaap wuurong and the other two languages.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Australian AboriginesThe Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, pp. 7Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1881