Southern Anthropology - a History of Fison and Howitt’s Kamilaroi and Kurnai

Enhancing the Kinship Anthropology of Scheffler with Diachronic Linguistics and Centricity

“…However, in this case, as we have noted, in its early history the term ramparr has a wider meaning of an avoidance relationship which encompassed several types of in-laws who may also be designated by more specific kinship terms, probably emerging from an original concrete meaning of 'barrier' extended metaphorically (McConvell 2015). This may be then a case of a term in which there is what we might call hypopolysemy.…”

“…This kind of restriction of cross-parallel neutralisation to the zero generation rather than the 'Hawaiian' system where there are no cross-parallel distinctions in any generation, is not uncommon world-wide: Gertrude Dole called it 'bifurcate generational ' (1969: 118). Fison and Howitt did not have linguistic or convincing ethnological evidence of this direction of change in Gippsland but relied on assumptions that the Dravidianate systems elsewhere must have been primordial on the one hand, and a highly speculative story of how people arrived in Gippsland on the other (Fison and Howitt 1880;Gardner and McConvell 2015). Intriguingly, Lorimer Fison later rejected his own story about this, claiming that he had received 'new evidence'-but there is no account of this evidence (Fison 1892). In the Western Desert, the so-called 'Aluridja' system also features crossparallel neutralisation in the zero generation, but as Laurent Dousset (2003) has shown, it is actually a contextual overlay used to talk about people who are not marriageable, and this often depends on the state of relations between groups, not hard and fast rules.…”

“…There is a term which began as ramparr in the North Kimberley region of Western Australia, diffused southwest, then, changing to lamparr due to a regular sound change, diffused west across the south Kimberley and a long distance into the Northern Territory (McConvell 2015).…”

Focality and Extension in Kinship: Essays in Memory of Harold W. Scheffler

“…This kind of restriction of cross-parallel neutralisation to the zero generation rather than the 'Hawaiian' system where there are no cross-parallel distinctions in any generation, is not uncommon world-wide: Gertrude Dole called it 'bifurcate generational ' (1969: 118). 9 9 Fison and Howitt did not have linguistic or convincing ethnological evidence of this direction of change in Gippsland but relied on assumptions that the Dravidianate systems elsewhere must have been primordial on the one hand, and a highly speculative story of how people arrived in Gippsland on the other (Fison and Howitt 1880;Gardner and McConvell 2015). Intriguingly, Lorimer Fison later rejected his own story about this, claiming that he had received 'new evidence'-but there is no account of this evidence (Fison 1892). In the Western Desert, the so-called 'Aluridja' system also features crossparallel neutralisation in the zero generation, but as Laurent Dousset (2003) has shown, it is actually a contextual overlay used to talk about people who are not marriageable, and this often depends on the state of relations between groups, not hard and fast rules.…”

Evolving Perspectives on Aboriginal Social Organisation: From Mutual Misrecognition to the Kinship Renaissance

“…424-50) raised the possibility that 'invaders' brought in totems and moieties. On other occasions, Fison and Howitt insisted that sections must have been ancient, dating from the time of humans first occupying and spreading out across Australia (Gardner & McConvell 2015).…”