Demographic and Ecological Influences on Aboriginal Australian Marriage Sections

Abstract

Aboriginal Australian social structure has been traditionally regarded as a complex cultural elaboration which integrates whole societies or 'tribes'. Most sociological interpretations have stressed the formal aspects of structure, although A. L. Kroeber has attempted to demonstrate that formal aspects of Australian social organization are secondary structural patterns which rely on primary patterns such as subsistence and locality. Kroeber concluded that the elaborate system of Australian marriages takes the form of unconscious experiment in the manner of fads and fashions. Though there is no disagreement with Kroeber's distinction between primary and secondary structures, one can examine the functions and interrelationship between section systems and environmental and demographic factors. The chapter examines the ecological and demographic factors which regulate different section systems. The Australian tribe possesses no effective political and economic control. The age of first marriage among Australian males varies from the early twenties to the mid-thirties, and the average is between the ages of 25 to 30.

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