ORIGINS

top

Reference Type: Journal Article
Record Number: 189
Author: Mathews, R. H.
Year: 1894
Title: Aboriginal Rock Paintings and Carvings in New South Wales
Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria
Volume: 7 (new series)
Pages: 143-56
Keywords: Rock art
Material culture

Abstract: This is the first of six papers Mathews published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. It describes and illustrates a large number of rock art sites in New South Wales, all in the greater Sydney region. The paper is part of a series of articles on rock art published during the 1890s. Mathews began serious investigation of this subject when preparing his essay ‘Rock Paintings and Carvings in New South Wales’ which won the bronze medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1894. The style and analytical approach is similar in nearly all these rock art articles. Mathews locates the site, usually by naming the County and parish in which it is situated. Often he provides additional topographical description that allows the reader to locate the site. He describes the motifs in the rock art and speculates on the mode of production. There is little analysis of the meaning of the art and no attempt to elicit the opinions of local Aboriginal people about its significance. This and other articles caused difficulties for Mathews within the Royal Society of New South Wales. It was considered a duplication of his prize essay which the NSW society had intended to publish. This article is unusual because it contains speculations on the origins of the Aboriginal people. It urges Victorians to do similar work in their own colony.
Notes: TRIBES
Not applicable.

LOCATIONS MENTIONED
1. Portion 33, Parish of Wareng, County of Hunter
2. Coxs Creek, Portion 65, Parish of Coolcalwin, County of Phillip
3. Portion 81, Parish of Bulga, County of Hunter.
4. Red Hand Bay, a tributary of Middle Harbour, near Sydney.
5. Portion 4, Parish of Wilpinjong, County of Phillip.
6. Portion 42, Parish of Tollagong, County of Hunter.
7. Overlooking Cowan Creek, tributary of the Hawkesbury, near Tabor Trigonometrical Station.
8. Track from Pymble to Cowan half a mile from Bobbin Trigonometrical Station.
9. Portion 1140, Parish of Manly Cove, County of Cumberland.
10. Portion 1139, Parish of Manly Cove, County of Cumberland.
11. Portion 717, Parish of Manly Cove, County of Cumberland.
12. Portion 83, Parish of Narrabeen, County of Cumberland.
13. Paintings exist in Victoria: Victoria Range, County of Dundas and eastern side of the Grampians, County of Borung.

INFORMANTS
1. Mr John Medhurst who lived on Wollombi Creek in 1840s.
2. Mr Earnest Favenc, 'who has travelled a great deal in Western Australia' - info on Murchison District.

CORRESPONDENTS
1. Mr John Medhurst who lived on Wollombi Creek in 1840s.
2. Mr Earnest Favenc, 'who has travelled a great deal in Western Australia' - info on Murchison District.

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Two plates of rock carvings.

REFERENCE TO OWN WORK
1. 1893 paper: JPRSNSW
2. Erratum: 'I have since contributed a paper to the 'Journal of the Royal Society of N. S. W.' (Vol. xxviii), in which this group will be shown in its complete state.'
 

top

Reference Type: Journal Article**
Record Number: 123
Author: Mathews, R. H.
Year: 1900
Title: The Origin, Organization and Ceremonies of the Australian Aborigines
Journal: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
Volume: 39
Pages: 556-78
Keywords: Aboriginal settlement of Australia
Ceremonies - initiation
Circumcision
Kinship and marriage
Subincision
Territories and boundaries

Abstract: This is a significant article that synthesises and interprets much of the data on kinship and initiation that Mathews had published since 1893. Considering the entire Australian continent, Mathews provides a speculative account of the arrival of the 'aboriginal races of Australia', proposing that the various moieties and sections were once separate tribes that amalgamated during successive periods of invasion. He argues that aspects of this history are also reflected in the initiatory rites. The article is a considered rebuttal of the 'group marriage' theory, favoured by Mathews' rivals W. B. Spencer, A. W. Howitt and Lorimer Fison. The article is accompanied by an important colour map that shows the position of various Aboriginal 'nations' (defined as groupings that share the same kinship systems and names). The map shows the distribution of the two section marriage system as well as the four and eight part systems. It also shows those 'remnant' nations that do not have sections or phratries, instead using the 'Tooar' system of allocating spouses. The map also reveals the boundaries of the various initiatory rites: tooth avulsion; circumcision only; and circumcision followed by subincision. In 'Sociology of some Australian Tribes' (1905) Mathews modified his view that the Australian moieties are exogamous. He requested that '[i]n any of my previous articles…in which it may be stated that an aboriginal community comprises "two exogamous divisions," the reader is requested to substitute "two principal divisions."'
Notes: TRIBES
1. Barkunjee
2. Yowerawarrika
3. Warkeemon community (also Warkemon?)
4. Wombya
5. Inchalachee
6. Wiradjuri
7. Kamilaroi
8. Darkinung
9. Thangatty
10. Dippil
11. Kooinmerburra
12. Kogai
13. Mycoolon
14. Goothanto
15. Koonjan
16. Joongonnjie
17. Arrinda
18. Yeeda
19. Ulperra
20. Adjadurah
21. Narrinyeri
22. Kurnai
23. Thurrawal

LOCATIONS MENTIONED
1. Port Lincoln
2. Western Victoria
3. Barwon River and its tributaries
4. Southwest (?) corner of Queensland
5. Victoria River
6. Gulf of Carpentaria
7. Newcastle Waters in the Northern Territory
8. Spencer Gulf
9. Lower Murray River

INFORMANTS
Not applicable.

CORRESPONDENTS
1. Rev. N. Hey 'for his willing assistance' (576)

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Map of Australia, showing boundaries of the several nations of Australia.

REFERENCE TO OWN WORK
1. Refers to work on organisation of Warkeemon community in north-eastern Queensland, 1898 (564).
2. Refers to work on organisation (specifically having discovered the eight divisions) of Wombya tribe (565-6).
3. Mentions having contributed to descriptions of initiation ceremonies to 'different learned societies' (570).

CROSS-REFERENCES
In 'The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes' (1896) he says: […].' (153)

In 'Marriage and Descent in the Arranda Tribe, Central Australia' (1908) on p. 99 (note) Mathews accused N. W. Thomas of plagiarising from the map in this article in Kinship Organization and Group Marriage (1906).

RELATED PUBLICATIONS
'The Wombya Organization of the Australian Aborigines' (1900)

top

Reference Type: Journal Article**
Record Number: 204
Author: Mathews, R. H.
Year: 1902
Title: Les Indigènes d'Australie
Journal: L'Anthropologie
Volume: 13
Pages: 233-40
Keywords: Cannibalism
Ceremonies - initiation
Kinship and marriage
Aboriginal settlement of Australia

Abstract: 'The Natives of Australia' (transl.) is one of Mathews' nine French language publications. It was published in the proceedings of the Congrès Internationale d'Anthropologie et d'Archéologie Préhistoriques, in 1902. Although Mathews seems to have had a basic knowledge of French and German, there is no evidence that he wrote professionally in either language. A translator is credited in many of his French publications, and although none is acknowledged here, it is most likely that Mathews drafted the article in English. In 2004 the French text was translated back into English by Mathilde de Hauteclocque for inclusion in the Mirranen Archive. This paper is important for an understanding of Mathews' thinking about the meaning of kinship and initiation. He opens by expressing his ideas about the populating of mainland Australia and Tasmania. Mathews believes that this occurred in the distant past when Africa, Asia, Australia and Papua formed a great southern land mass called Lemuria. The 'first human beings', who were of a 'negroid type', spread across this territory during successive phases of migration. He proposes that in later periods the original 'primitive race' was followed 'by hostile tribes of a higher character and a more advanced civilisation'. These new arrivals were superior fighters. The original inhabitants, forced to abandon many of their old traditions, 'assimilated those from the victors'. The later immigrants, however, never reached Tasmania 'which had become an island following the subsidence of a strip of land which became Bass Strait'. Mathews was convinced that the descendants of these original inhabitants survived in certain regions of South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. They lacked the complex kinship system that was common across most of the continent. Instead, they had what Mathews called the Tooar (previously spelled 'tu-or') marriage system, in which 'old men assembled in council to appoint the women to the boys'. Mathews writes that in both their physical appearance and cultural practices, the Tooar communities 'greatly resemble the Tasmanians'. Mathews then discusses the more orthodox kinship and marriage systems found elsewhere in Australia-those in which communities are divided into two moieties that might be further divided into either two or four sections. He hypothesises that these systems are the residue of various tribal amalgamations. Mathews cites legends from the Yowerawarrika tribe to support his case. He also writes that the historical experience of migration and inter-tribal merging can be discerned in initiation ceremonies. Commenting on the ceremony at 'Tallwood', New South Wales, which he documented in 'The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribe' (1896), Mathews proposes that the removal of the novices from their mothers 'may be a symbol of what happened in the past'. During an enemy attack, he conjectures, 'a group of men may have taken charge of the women while the others took the young people away to bring them up in the traditions of the conquerors'. Mathews concludes the article by expressing his conviction that 'neither promiscuity, nor what has been called communal or group marriage ever existed among the Australian tribes'. This article is unusual amongst Mathews' articles because its interpretive approach goes well beyond the straightforward reportage found in the majority of his publications. Some of the ideas expressed here were also advanced in 'The Origin, Organization and Ceremonies of the Australian Aborigines' (1900) and 'Australian Tribes-their Formation and Government' (1906). He also discussed the Tooar marriage system in 'The Organisation, Language and Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of the South-East Coast of N. S. Wales' (1900).
Notes: TRIBES
1. Barkunjee tribe
2. Yowerawarrika tribe
3. Miappe
4. Wombya
5. Kamilaroi

LOCATIONS MENTIONED
1. Africa
2. Asia
3. Van Diemens Land [Tasmania]
4. Papua
5. Lemuria
6. Indian Ocean
7. New Guinea
8. New Caledonia
9. Melanesia
10. Polynesia
11. India
12. Ceylon
13. Nicobar
14. Andaman Islands
15. Malayan Peninsula
16. Java
17. Borneo
18. Celebes
19. Timor
20. South Australia
21. Western Australia
22. Victoria
23. New South Wales
24. Port Lincoln
25. Western Victoria

INFORMANTS
Nil.

CORRESPONDENTS
Nil.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Nil.

REFERENCE TO OWN WORK
1. ‘Australian Divisional Systems’, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 32, 1898.
2. ‘Australian Divisional Systems’, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 32, 1898.
3. ‘The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 9 (new series), 1896.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS
‘The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes’ (1896)
‘The Origin, Organization and Ceremonies of the Australian Aborigines’ (1900)
‘The Organisation, Language and Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of the South-East Coast of N. S. Wales’ (1900)
‘Australian Tribes—their Formation and Government’ (1906)

top

Reference Type: Journal Article**
Record Number: 69
Author: Mathews, R. H.
Year: 1903-04
Title: Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of Western Australia
Journal: Queensland Geographical Journal
Volume: 19
Pages: 45-72
Keywords: Ceremonies - initiation
Kinship and marriage
Language elicitation
Rock art

Abstract: This substantial article on Western Australia includes sections on 'Origin of the Australian Aborigines'; 'Rock Pictures' (rock paintings, rock carvings); '[Social] Organisation'; 'Superstitions'; and 'Language'. There are short descriptions of initiation ceremonies and the extraction of teeth. The rock art material includes a description of line drawings of rock engravings and a photograph of a painted spirit figure from the Kimberley. The article is not based on personal investigation. Instead, Mathews made extensive use of European correspondents. He wrote to station owners, police officers and other settlers, seeking help in his research. Their assistance is acknowledged. In the section of the paper on social organisation Mathews surmises that in the past smaller tribes amalgamated into larger confederacies. He outlines the various types of kinship and marriage system operative in Western Australia. The section of the article on language gives vocabularies of the Roebourne and Lower Fitzroy districts. Each vocabulary is arranged under headings that include: 'Family Terms, Etc.'; 'Parts of the Body'; 'Natural Objects'; 'Animals'; 'Weapons'; 'Adjectives'. The article concludes with a minor correction of Mathews' article 'Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Northern Territory' (1901). In 'Sociology of some Australian Tribes' (1905) Mathews modified his view that the Australian moieties are exogamous. He requested that '[i]n any of my previous articles…in which it may be stated that an aboriginal community comprises "two exogamous divisions," the reader is requested to substitute "two principal divisions."'
Notes: TRIBES
1. Wommalunna (language)
2. Andikarina
3. Arrinda
4. Chingalee
5. Inchalee
6. Warkya (or Waggaia)
7. Parnkalla
8. Yowerawarraka
9. Barkunjee
10. Kishu (language)

LOCATIONS MENTIONED
1. Cumberland County
2. Hunter County
3. Upper Murchison River
4. Gascoyne River
5. Ashburton River
6. Fortescue River
7. Yule River
8. Mount Stewart Station
9. Hillside Station
10. Shaw River
11. De Grey River
12. Lyndon River
13. Murchison River
14. Depuch Island
15. Balla Balla
16. Ord River
17. Halls Creek
18. Margaret River
19. Sturt Creek
20. Fitzroy River
21. Fraser River
22. Lenard River
23. Glenelg River
24. Bachsten Creek
25. Calder River
26. Collier Bay
27. Dongarra
28. Onslow
29. Perth
30. Albany
31. Eucla
32. Norseman
33. Lake Barlee
34. Deeside Station
35. Georgina River
36. Lake Macdonald
37. Greenough River
38. Sanford River
39. Roderick River
40. Wooramel River
41. Lyons River
42. Weld Spring
43. Bonython Creek
44. Lake Throssall
45. Elder Creek
46. Glen Cumming
47. Oakover River
48. Throssell River
49. Roeburne district
50. Maitland River
51. Lower Fitzroy River
52. Ord River
53. Denham River
54. Wave Hill Station on Victoria River
55. Daly Waters
56. Elsey Creek
57. McArthur River
58. Calvert River
59. Rockland Station
60. Charlotte Waters
61. Alice Springs
62. Cape Arid
63. Fremantle
64. Shark Bay
65. Roebourne
66. Condon
67. Carnarvon
68. Geraldton
69. Derby
70. Wyndham
71. Beagle Bay
72. Weld Springs
73. Parker Ranges
74. Minilya River
75. Station at Lyndon River
76. Cossack
77. Yeeda Station, near Derby
78. Darling River

INFORMANTS
1. Station owners/managers (45).
2. Police Force (45).
3. Others, by recommendation of current informants (45).
4. Mr. H. A. Hall (48) - initials given as Mr. W. A. Hall on p. 64.
5. Mr. William Byron (near Balla Balla?) who sent Mathews 'about forty copies of rock carvings on Depuch Island, of which there are hundreds' (48).
7. Mr. J. Wilson (49).
8. Mr. J. C. Rose (49).
9. Mr. J. Hancock (49) and others (49).
10. Mr. Thos. Muir, J. P. of Deeside Station, WA (51).
11. Mr. J. Cahill, manager of Wave Hill Station, on Victoria River (53).
12. Mr. W. Holze, of Daly Waters (53).
13. Mr. M. Costello (54).
14. Mr. A. H. Glissan of Rockland Station (54).
15. Mr. H. T. Knight, station manager, Lyndon River (63).
16. Mr. G. Buchanan, Flora Valley Station, near Hall's Creek in the Kimberley district (63).
17. Baibung, 'a native of the Roebourne district' (66).
18. Mr. A. E. Clifton, manager of the Yeeda Station, near Derby (66).
19. Mr. W. J. Wilson, police officer at Hall's Creek, in the Kimberley district (66).

CORRESPONDENTS
1. Mr H. A. Hall / W. A. Hall.
2. Mr. William Byron (near Balla Balla?).
3. Mr. J. Wilson.
4. Mr. J. C. Rose.
5. Mr. J. Hancock.
6. Mr. Thos. Muir, J. P.
7. Mr. J. Cahill.
8. Mr. W. Holze.
9. Mr. M. Costello.
10. Mr H. T. Knight.
11. Mr. A. E. Clifton.
12. Mr. W. J. Wilson.

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Drawing - rock carvings.
2. Photograph - rock painting.
3. Mathews believes that it is important to reproduce one of Mr. R. S. Brockman's photographs in this article 'because the Journal of this Society will go into many channels which will not be reached by the report of Mr. Brockman's discoveries' (50).

REFERENCE TO OWN WORK
1. Refers to work on probable origins of Aboriginal People and the development of some of their customs in an article contributed to the twelfth session of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology, held at Paris in 1900 (45).
2. Refers to own published work on rock carvings in New South Wales (46).
3. Refers to work reported to the Anthropological Society at Paris in 1898, which describes paintings similar to those found by Mr. Brockman (50).
4. Refers to work on Nanarri system of New South Wales, described in 1900 (51).
5. Refers to work on details of the intermarriages of the Chingalee tribe, contributed to the Anthropological Society at Washington (53).
7. Refers to work contributed to the Royal Society of New South Wales (53-4).
8. Refers to work on the divisions of the Elsey Creek tribe contributed to the Society of Anthropology at Paris (54).
9. Refers to work on Chingalee vocabulary and totems contributed to the Royal Geographical Society at Brisbane in 1901. Mathews acknowledges the help of Mr. Holze in supplying some of the basic data for this piece (54).
10. Refers to work on the eight sections of the McArthur and Calvert Rivers tribes communicated in 1899 to American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. Mathews acknowledges the help of Mr. Costello in supplying some of the basic data for this piece (54).
11. Refers to work on the eight sections of the Inchalachee and Warkya tribes, 'which were tabulated under my direction by Mr. A. H. Glissan, Rockland Station, and reported by me in 1899) (54).
12. Refers to work detailing descent of Northern Territory Tribes, contributed in 1901 to the Geographical Society of Queensland (61).
13. Refers to 'tolerably full descriptions' (61) given elsewhere of initiation ceremonies (61).
14. Refers to his article, 'Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Northern Territory' (63).
15. Refers to his treatise on 'The Origin, Organisation, and Ceremonies of the Australian Aborigines', which is accompanied by a map ... (63).

CROSS-REFERENCES
‘Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Northern Territory’ (1901).
 

top

Reference Type: Book**
Record Number: 66
Author: Mathews, R. H.
Year: 1905
Title: Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria
City: Sydney
Publisher: F.W. White General Printer
Number of Pages: 183
Keywords: Avenging
Baiame - stories and motifs
Body scars
Bush tucker
Ceremonies - initiation
Clever people
Cooking & eating
Indigenous knowledge - astronomy
Kinship and marriage
Language elicitation
Mortuary customs
Reproduction - childbirth
Sorcery
Stories & motifs
Subincision
Technology - implements/tools
Totems

Abstract: Running to 183 pages, this book is Mathews' longest and most substantial anthropological publication. Printed by W. F. White in Sydney, it was jointly funded by Mathews and the Royal Society of New South Wales. While the ten-page appendix is new, the remainder of the text-as the author acknowledges-is an exact replication of the long article of the same title, published in in 1904. It was not common for the Royal Society to publish articles of such great length. Perhaps in recognition of Mathews' substantial publication record the society accommodated this article in the journal and then assisted financially in the production of the book. However the involvement of the Royal Society imposed certain restrictions upon Mathews who, by 1905, had been regularly publishing ethnological material for twelve years, and would have been in a position to release his major findings in book form. This was not possible in a publication backed by the Royal Society which had received complaints about Mathews republishing in different journals some of his early articles on initiation and rock art. The society insisted, as Mathews states, that the 'Ethnological Notes' contain 'original matter only, which had never been published anywhere before'. Mathews could not re-present or refine earlier findings and found it necessary to 'enumerate all my former works' in a bibliography. Ninety-five publications are listed, although the bibliography is not definitive. Some publications, including all his contributions to Science of Man, are omitted. Others, listed as independent titles (eg. 'Dharruk Language and Vocabulary'), are only sections or appendices of other articles. Owing to the length of this publication, it is not possible to give a full summary in this abstract. The overall scope of the book can be determined from the Table of Contents, cited below.

CONTENTS
Introduction
System of Spelling
Sociology of the Nguemba Tribes
Sociology of the Kamilaroi Tribes
Sociology of the Thurrawal Tribes
Childbirth
The Nguemba Language
The Nguemba Vocabulary
Language of the Thangatti Tribe
Thangatti Vocabulary
Pirrimbir or Avenging Expedition
Explanation of Illustration
The Search for Food
Food Regulations, Totems, etc
Mumbirbirri or Scarring the Body
Some Burial and Mourning Customs
Sorcery or Magic
Aboriginal Astronomy-the Zodiac
Sociology of the Tribes of Western Victoria
Sociology of the Tribes of Eastern Victoria
Language of Mothers-in-law
The Wonggoa or Wongupka Ceremony
The Tyibbauga Ceremony
The Dolgarrity Ceremony
Notes on the Initiation of Girls
Aboriginal Mythology and Folklore
- Baiame
- Dhurramulan
- Miscellaneous Superstitions
- Dyillagamberra the Rainmaker
- How the Wongaibon obtained Fire
- How Water was obtained by the Makilaroi People
- The Dhiel and her Water-trough
- Yandhangga
- The Moon and its Halo
- Two Young Men and the Moon
- The Yaroma
- Wallanthagang
- The Wawi and the Song-makers
Achievements of the Brambambults
1. The Ngihdyal
2. Ngaut-ngaut
3. Wirnbullain
4. Dyuni-dyunity
5. Gartuk
APPENDIX
Rite of Subincision
Additional Folklore
The Bat, his Wives and the Native Cat
Origin of Tulliwaka Ana-branch

As the Table of Contents indicates, the book is something of a mixed bag of ethnographic data. In some parts, such as the sections on the Nguemba and Thangatti languages, the exposition is similar to that of his many other articles containing linguistic documentation. Yet there are aspects of this book that break new ground. The Preface contains information on Mathews' motivations and working methods. The Introduction opens with two pages of autobiographical reflections on the author's childhood and background as a surveyor. The material on the 'Sociology of the Ngeumba Tribe' contains data not previously reported by any author. The Ngeumba-speaking people, according to Mathews, 'formerly occupied the country from Brewarrina to the Darling River southerly up the Bogan almost to Nyngan.' Their territory also stretched westwards beyond Cobar and Byrock, including 'the upper portions of Mulga Creek and surrounding country'. In his writings on Aboriginal kinship and marriage, Mathews had written extensively about the phratries (moieties), sections and totemic groups into which communities were divided. While Mathews' research pointed to the existence of a similar kinship structure in Ngeumba society, he writes that the system was further complicated by 'blood' and 'shade' divisions which he refers to as 'castes'. These caste distinctions, he reports, must also be taken into account when spouses are selected. They also 'regulate the camping or resting places of the people under the shades of large trees in the vicinity of water or elsewhere'. Many other sections of the book contain unique insights on Aboriginal life in Victoria and New South Wales. Especially notable are the sections on childbirth, scarification, burial and astronomy. The 'Notes on the Initiation of Girls' run to only two-and-a-half pages, but they are notable because the (mostly male) anthropologists of this period paid scant attention to the ceremonial life of women. The section titled 'Aboriginal Mythology and Folklore' is Mathews' most substantial documentation of story-telling traditions. Although he retells the stories in his own words (he never attempted to replicate the syntax of his informants), the documentation is invaluable. Individual informants are not identified, however he does name the tribe or locality from which each story originated. Mathews' perspective as a surveyor-his interest in topographical specificity-is fully apparent in his recording of folklore. The stories frequently explain the formation of rivers, mountains and other landmarks. The section of the appendix titled 'The Rite of Subincision' was not included in the 1904 version of the publication is preceded with a warning that parts of it are 'not suitable for the general lay reader'. It describes the initiatory rite of subincision, […] which was practised in a small part of northwest New South Wales (and in many other parts of Australia). Mathews describes the operation in some detail and reproduces two photographs of a subincised penis that were first published by Professor T. P. Anderson-Stuart in volume 30 of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 'Sociology of some Australian Tribes' (1905) Mathews modified his view that the Australian moieties are exogamous. He requested that '[i]n any of my previous articles…in which it may be stated that an aboriginal community comprises 'two exogamous divisions,' the reader is requested to substitute 'two principal divisions.'' In 'Australian Folk-tales' (1909) he revealed that the story of Yarroma was told to him by the Jirringan (Dyirringan) tribe of the New South Wales South Coast.
Notes: TRIBES
1. Nguemba
2. Kamilaroi
3. Wirraidyuri
4. Thurrawal
5. Wombya
6. Parnkall community
7. Wailwan
8. Wongaibon
9. Thangatti
10. Kumbainggeri
11. Thoorga
12. Wirraidyuri language
13. Tharumba
14. Tyat-tyalli language
15. Wimmera
16. Woiwurru
17. Bunwurru
18. Wuddyawurru
19. Thaguwurru
20. Tyapwurru
21. Dhauhurtwurru
22. Bungandity
23. Peekwurru
24. Chaapwurru
25. Yota-Yota
26. Darkinung
27. Nimbaldi
28. Kurna

LOCATIONS MENTIONED
1. Barwon River
2. Namoi River
3. Castlereagh River
4. Jerry's Plains (Hunter River)
5. Hunter River
6. Walgett
7. Mungindi on the Barwon River
8. Namoi River
9. Gwydir River
10. Hawkesbury River
11. Cape Howe
12. Brewarrina
13. Darling River
14. Bogan River
15. Nyngan
16. Cobar
17. Byrock
18. Mulga Creek
19. Macleay River
20. Narooma, County of Dampier
21. County of Dampier
22. Upper Lachlan River
23. Clarence River
24. County of Kara-Kara, VIC
25. Bourke, NSW
26. Louth, NSW
27. Swan Hill, VIC
28. Murray River
29. Grampian Hills
30. Wimmera River
31. Beaufort
32. Hexham
33. Wickliffe
34. Port Lincoln, SA
35. Lake Eyre Basin, SA
36. Warrnambool, VIC
37. Portland
38. Dhinmar (Lady Julia Percy Island)
39. Geelong, VIC
40. Castlemaine, VIC
41. Pyramid Hill
42. Forest Hill
43. Sturt's Creek, WA
44. Ord River, WA
45. Fitzroy River, WA
46. Upper Murray River
47. Mitta River
48. Kiewa River
49. Ovens River
50. Buffalo River
51. Upper Goulburn River
52. King River
53. Broken River
54. Yarra River
55. Saltwater River
56. Avoca River
57. Byrock, Parish of Bye, County of Cowper
58. Western Railway Line
59. Caronga Peak woolshed, near Byrock
60. Wilgaroon
61. Wittaguna
62. Lake Cudgellico
63. Kangaroo Valley
64. Upper Lachlan River
65. Port Phillip, VIC
66. Mount Freeling, SA
67. Daly River, NT
68. Tuross River
69. Mehi River
70. Gwydir River
71. Jeparit
72. Horsham Plain
73. Lake Hindmarsh
74. Lake Albacutya
75. Wonga Lake
76. Pine Plain
77. Cow Plain
78. Mukbilli
79. Milparinka
80. Tibooburra
81. Cobham
82. Broken Hill


INFORMANTS
1. 'my aboriginal informants' (v).
2. 'the wife of a station manager in the north-western districts of New South Wales. This lady had been a trained nurse and has witnessed several cases of accouchement among the black women on the station where she resided' - childbirth (15).
3. 'the aboriginal speakers' - Thangatti vocabulary (34).
4. 'the remnants of the native tribes' - avenging expedition (37).
5. 'two old aborigines' - tree markings and songs (48).
6. 'the aborigines in various places in New South Wales and Victoria' - food procurement (50).
7. 'My informants were old men who had been operated on in their youth, who showed me their scars, and had a very vivid recollection of the formalities connected with the ordeal' - scarring (60).
8. 'old blackfellows' - on trees and astronomy (80).
9. 'old natives' - star names (81).
10. 'A very old Gurgoity blackfellow on the Wimmera River' (90).
11. 'native men who had passed through the ceremonies' (105).
12. 'an old woman of the Wuddyawurru tribe' - several interviews 'respecting the language and customs of her people (133).
13. 'an old native' on the Mitta Mitta and Ovens Rivers - on the initiation of girls (134).
14. 'old men and women' (135) - myths and folklore

CORRESPONDENTS
Not applicable.

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Photographs of a tree marked by Pirrimbir Warriors (49).
2. Photographs showing the the effect of subincision on the organ (175).

REFERENCE TO OWN WORK
1. 1904 article of same title: 'This fact will no doubt be considered a sufficient guarantee that it is up to the standard required in scientific investigations' (iii).
2. States that the Royal Society of New South Wales has restricted him to 'original matter only, which had never been published anywhere before' (iv), and that, because he couldn't include any of his previous writings, he had to 'enumerate all my former works in the 'Bibliography'' (iv).
3. 'I have recorded and published the grammars of fifty Australian languages and dialects' (iv).
4. Refers readers to 'the comprehensive maps of Australia printed in some of the articles enumerated in the 'Bibliography'' (v).
5. In previous contributions 'I have comprehensively dealt with aboriginal rock-pictures, languages, the bora and several other initiation ceremonies, bullroarers, message-sticks, and native customs generally' (vi).
6. More self-promotion: 'my works have been distributed into the libraries of most of the learned Societies throughout the world' (vi).
7. Refers to methods of other researchers: 'I have adopted none of the opinions nor followed any of the methods of other Australian authors, but have struck out on my own lines, recording all the new and interesting facts within my reach' (2, emphasis added).
8. Treatises on aboriginal ceremonies and customs published in European and American journals (2-3).
9. States that he has introduced some additional rules of orthoepy to meet the requirements of Australian pronunciation (3).
10. Original work on Kamilaroi grammar and vocabulary, published last year (13).
11. Refers to work published on the secret language of the Kamilaroi 1902 (14).
12. Article contributed to Royal Society of New South Wales in 1900 re Thurrawal social organisation (14).
13. 1898 report on eight sections of Wombya tribe, NT (15).
14. 1900 report on eight sections of Wombya tribe, NT (15).
15. Reports that the languages of both Wailwan and Wongaibon have already been published by himself (17).
16. Refers to himself as the first author to report on the importance of pronouns (19).
17. Grammar and vocabulary of Wirraidyuri language contributed to Anthropological Institute of Great Britain 1904 (60-1).
18. Initiation ceremonies of Wirraidyuri contributed to Royal Geographical Society at Brisbane, 1896 (61).
19. Social organisation of Wirraidyuri contributed in two articles to Anthropological Society at Washington in 1897 (61).
20. Dolgarrity ceremony (84).
21. Article on origin of the intermarrying divisions of Australian tribes, read at International Congress on Anthropology and Archæology held at Paris in 1900 (88).
22. Article on sectional divisions, 1897 (88).
23. Article on 'confederacy' hypothesis: 'possibly in the distant past the present names of the sections represented small independent tribes, which became incorporated with each other, for the purpoe of mutual defence, or for other reasons' (88).
24. Tyat-tyalli grammar and vocabulary published in 1902 (90).
25. 1900 - marriage laws of Parnkall nation (94).
26. 1900 - 'limits of the country occupied by the Parnkall nation, and supplied a map, which no previous author had attempted, in which the boundaries were accurately delineated' (94).
27. 1900 - initiation ceremonies of the Parnkalla nation (94).
28. Intermarrying laws and inaugural ceremonies among eastern Victoria tribes, contributed to Anthropological Society at Washington in 1898 (96).
29. 1899 sociology of tribes on Sturt's Creek, Ord River, Fitzroy River, WA, 'which was the first time the eight-section system had ever been reported in that State' (103).
30. 1900 article on geographic limits of eight-section system (103): 'I was the first to observe and publish the marriages which are provisionally distinguished as 'alternative,' 'rare,' and 'exceptional'' (103).
31. Grammars published in New South Wales and America on south-western Victorian languages (102-3).
32. Work on mystic language of the Kamilaroi, communicated to the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain (104).
33. Kannety ceremony of initiation in south-west Victoria (120).
34. Wonggumuk ceremony in central and northern districts of Victoria (120).
35. Grinding places reported and illustrated previously (140).
36. Additional information supplied in a paper which was read before the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1904 (174).
37. 1900 article on phallic rites and initiation ceremonies in SA (174). Photographs of subincised penis complement this article (174).

CROSS-REFERENCES
‘Australian Folk-tales’ (1909) reveals that the story of Yarroma was told to Mathews by the Jirringan (Dyirringan) tribe of the New South Wales South Coast.
 

top

home | contents | sensitivity statement