Society-ARANDA

Before 1900, the Aranda were one of the largest aboriginal groups
in central Australia. According to Tindale, the less frequently used
term, Arunta, is a result of Sir Baldwin Spencer's very British hearing.
Few other fieldworkers have used this name, although secondary sources
sometimes employ it (Tindale 1974: 155). Aranda territory extended
from lat. 27 degrees-22 degrees 30 min. S by long. 131 degrees-137
degrees E. Strehlow divides the population into five groups: Northern,
Eastern, Central, Western, and Southern (possibly subdivided into
Upper Southern and Lower Southern). His most recent conclusions concerning
their distribution suggest that the Southern group was distinct from
the others, possibly forming a separate unit (cf. Tindale 1974: 137,
221). Elkin divides the Aranda into similar groupings on the basis
of dialect differences (Elkin 1938: 26).

Around the turn of the century there were probably about 2,000 Aranda,
but through the decimation of the population by tuberculosis and venereal
disease, there were no more than 300 to 400 left by 1927 (Spencer
and Gillen 1927: 1). The number existing today must be very small,
except for settled communities at mission stations, where their traditional
culture has been essentially eliminated (Murdock 1934: 45-46).

The Aranda language is categorized by the Voegelins as a part of the
Pama-Nyungan Phyla (160 of the 228 languages in Australia) of the
Australian Macrophylum (Voegelin and Voegelin 1966: 41-42). The whole
unit (i.e, the Pama-Nyungan Phyla) has some words in common "but there
are also differences as great as French and Danish" (Pink 1935/36:
281).

The climate of central Australia is hot and dry. There are only two
seasons a year: a long dry season and a short, irregular rainy season.
It is not uncommon for no rain at all to fall for two or three years,
and droughts of eight years or more have occurred. In the hottest
months, January and February, the temperature may reach 112 degrees
F and not drop below 90 degrees F for two or three weeks. In the coldest
months, May to August, the temperature may drop as low as 20 degrees
F at night, though this is rare (Spencer and Gillen 1927: 2-4; Porteus
1931: 126-127; Schulze 1891: 212-213).

The geography of the area varies greatly from the low flats around
the Macumba River in the south, only 70 feet above sea level, to the
highest peaks of the MacDonnell Ranges, over 5,000 feet, in the north.
The steppe lands south of the mountains are generally well watered
(relative to neighboring areas), as a result of the numnber of rivers
that flow out of the mountains. The land south and west of the steppes
is true desert. Here the only water is in rock holes in the bare sand
hills.

The Northern and Eastern Aranda lived in the MacDonnell Ranges. The
Western Aranda lived in the best-watered section of the region, west
of the mountains. The Southern Aranda lived in the driest part of
the region, and had to confine their travel to the courses of the
Hugh and the Finke rivers, the only two permanent water sources in
the area (Strehlow 1947: 70-71).

Fauna include kangaroo, wallaby, euro (a kind of small kangaroo),
emu (a flightless bird similar to an ostrich), rabbits (introduced
by Europeans), other small marsupials and rodents, bandicoots, snakes,
frogs, and a large variety of birds, including turkeys and ducks (Spencer
and Gillen 1927: 14-16; Strehlow 1947: 60-61). A variety of trees
and shrubs provided wood, gums, herbs, and fruits for weapons, tools,
medicines, and food (Cleland and Johnston 1933: 117).

The Aranda lived by collecting whatever vegetable foods they could
find, especially a large variety of plant bulbs, seeds, and tubers.
Yams were the favorite. Lizards, honey ants, grubs, caterpillars,
mussels, and land snails were also collected. All of this was women's
and children's work (Spencer and Gillen 1927: 23-24; Basedow 1925:
121-125, 146-152). The men hunted all of the previously named animals.
Rabbits, after their introduction, quickly supplanted other small
marsupials and rodents, competing with them as favorites among hunters.
The only weapons were spears and boomerangs. Tracking and stalking
played major parts in hunting. Native dingos were valuable for stalking,
but Basedow claims that the European dogs that replaced them were
not used for anything but companionship (Basedow 1925: 118).

The sparseness of the country meant that the people were nomadic most
of the time, although each local band had a permanent central camp.
While they were traveling, their dwellings consisted of little more
than lean-tos made of shrubbery. Each was occupied by a man, his wife
or wives, their children, and the dogs, which were apparently kept
in numbers up to 15 per family. The most permanent house was only
a circular structure of small branches, set in a circle 5-7 feet in
diameter and leaning together at the top. The huts were designed mainly
for shade or protection against rain or cold. In the warm weather,
people slept outside.

The principal reason for selecting a site when a group was traveling
was the availability of water. A camp would be set up near a water
supply, the area would be hunted and collected until it was exhausted,
and then the group would move on. Each band moved within a circumscribed
ancestral territory.

As has been mentioned, there were two kinds of camps: the temporary
ones made in the bush and the permanently located central camp. While
the main camp had a very definite organization, reflecting the moieties,
sections, and subsections of the "tribe," any longstanding camp was
also divided into the marriage sections of the members. All permanent
camps were divided into four main sections: north, south, east, and
west for each of the sections of the tribe. Each of these sections
was itself divided into two subsections. Individual family dwellings
were spread throughout each section. Each of the four sections had
its own men's club, on the outside edge of the circular camp, and
a women's club on the inside.

Marriage was strictly regulated by the three main divisions of the
tribe. These divisions resulted in the classic eight-section Australian
system, beloved of anthropologists since its first exposition by Radcliffe-Brown.
Two unnamed moieties divided the tribe in half. Each moiety was then
divided into two sections, and each section was further subdivided
into two subsections. All of the divisions were exogamous. Spouses
had to be chosen from the proper subsection of the opposite moiety.
Descent was patrilineal, in that children of a marriage belonged to
the other section of the same moiety as that of the father.

This structure is reflected in the classificatory kinship system,
classificatory in the sense that everyone in a particular section
was called wife, or father-in-law, etc., depending on his or her potential
relation to ego. The sectional kinship system served to organize the
Aranda into some kind of relation with all others, so that if a stranger
came into camp, he or she could immediately be categorized and the
proper behavior displayed (Chewings 1936: 138-140).

The Aranda were divided into a number of small local groups or bands,
each with its own territory. Marital residence was predominantly virilocal
with respect to these bands. Local bands each averaged only two or
three families. The largest group encountered by Spencer and Gillen
numbered only 40 individuals. Their territory was about 100 square
miles. There were no chiefs of units above the local bands. The highest
official was the Inkata, who was the hereditary totem chief. His main
responsibility was the care of the sacred storeroom, which contained
each individual's totemic spirit object (churinga). Each local group
had its own Inkata. His power came mainly through influence. He also
led ceremonies. This office was inherited from father to son, or to
a brother or brother's son if the chief's son was too young, incapable,
or of the improper totem.

The various totems constituted a further subdivision of the Aranda.
Each Aranda belonged to a particular totem group, which associated
its members with some natural object, usually a plant or an animal,
from which he or she was descended. These groups were independent
of the kinship and marriage system and were only partially hereditary.
Souls of legendary ancestors associated with the founding of these
totems floated through the air and impregnated women, and their souls
were thus burn again. Except for Roheim, fieldworkers among the Aranda
claimed that they denied the role of males in paternity.

Besides the Inkata chief, the only other positions of high status
were those of medicine men and spirit mediums, who were able to communicate
with the Iruntarinia, the spirits associated with the Aranda. The
medicine men were curers who, through various procedures, removed
the magical causes of illness from a patient and determined who was
responsible for the malady. While every group had its own Inkata,
the other two vocations were more irregularly distributed, and were
not hereditary.

Wife stealing, taking a wife from an improper marriage section (incest),
and accusation by a shaman of causing another's death (usually from
a different local band), were all likely to result in one's death.
Blood revenge and duels were the modes of these executions. But it
cannot be said that organized fighting or warfare of any kind existed.
Relations between local groups were generally amicable, and people
were able to travel over wide areas without fear. The Aranda were
apparently equally friendly to Whites, and there are no records of
serious hostilities with them.

Additional summaries of the Aranda may be found in Murdock (1934)
which is based largely on the work of Spencer and Gillen (1927) and
Strehlow (1947), in Tindale (1974), in Service (1971), and in Weyer
(n.d.).

Culture summary by Martin J. Malone



Basedow, Herbert.
 The Australian aboriginal.
 Adelaide, F. W. Preece, 1925.
 20, 422 p. illus., map.
 Cleland, John Burton.
 The ecology of the aborigines of Central Australia: botanical notes.
 By John Burton Cleland and Thomas Harvey Johnston.
 Royal Society of South Australia, Transactions and Proceedings, 57 (1933): 113-124.
 Elkin, Adolphus Peter.
 The Australian aborigines.
 Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1938.
 Murdock, George Peter.
 The Aranda of Central Australia.
 In Our Primitive Contemporaries.
 New York, Macmillan, 1934: 20-47.
 Porteus, Stanley D. The psychology of a primitive people: a study of the Australian aborigine.
 New York, Longmans, Green, 1931.
 15, 438 p. illus., maps.
 Schulze, Louis.
 The aborigines of the upper and middle Finke River: their habits and customs, with introductory notes on the physical and natural-history features of the country.
 Royal Society of South Australia, Transactions and Proceedings and Report, 14 (1891): 210-246..
 Spencer, Walter Baldwin.
 The Arunta: a study of a stone age people.
 By Sir Baldwin Spencer ...
 and ...
 F. J. Gillen.
 London, Macmillan, 1927.
 2 v. (28, 646 p.) illus., maps.
 Strehlow, Theodor Georg Heinrich.
 Aranda traditions.
 [Melbourne] Melbourne University Press [1947].
 22, 181 p. illus., map.
 Service, Elman R. The Arunta of Australia.
 In his Profiles in ethnology.
 rev.
 ed.
 New York, Harper and Row, 1971: 3-26.
 Tindale, Norman B. Aboriginal tribes of Australia.
 Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974.
 Voegelin, Carl F. Languages of the world: Indo-Pacific, fascicle 6.
 By Carl F. Voegelin and Florence M. Voegelin.
 Anthropological Linguistics, 8 (1966): 41-42.
 Weyer, Edward, Jr.
 A wandering tribe of the Australian desert: the Arunta.
 In his Primitive Peoples Today.
 Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Co., n.d.: 238-254.


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