Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia

About this book

Northcote W. Thomas’s 1906 monograph is a scholarly survey of Australian Aboriginal kinship structures, with a particular focus on group marriage and the organization of totemic, class, and phratrical affiliations. The work opens with a formal preface that explains its aim: to offer a concise, thematic study of “special themes” rather than a sweeping ethnography, and to stimulate further field research. After acknowledging the editorial assistance of Andrew Lang, Thomas outlines the scope of his inquiry, descent, terminology, and the various forms of marital unions, while noting the gaps in contemporary knowledge, especially concerning the central tribes and the less‑studied Anula and Mara groups. The book proceeds through a series of numbered chapters, each devoted to a specific aspect of social organization, and is supplemented by extensive tables of class and phratries, indexes, and a bibliography that situates the study within the broader anthropological literature of the era.

Written in the measured, academic prose of early‑20th‑century anthropology, the text reflects the period’s emphasis on classification, comparative analysis, and exhaustive citation. Its voice is formal and meticulous, often invoking the authority of European scholars such as Durkheim, Morgan, and Lang. Readers with a keen interest in the history of ethnology, the development of kinship theory, or the detailed documentation of Aboriginal social systems will find Thomas’s systematic approach and his extensive use of primary sources especially rewarding.