Ayapathu

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Ayapathu people, otherwise known as the Ayabadhu or Aiyaboto, were an

Indigenous Australian group, living on the western side of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland
.

Language

Ayapathu[1] appears to have been closely related to the coastal language of Yintyingka, though structurally different[2] and they may be considered dialects of the same language.[3] Etymologically, aya means 'language', while patha may be cognate with the homophonous Yintyingka word for 'to eat', paralleling the ethnonym Wik-Mungkan (speech (wik)+eat (mungka).[4]

Little is otherwise known of the language. Some word lists were compiled from information given by George Rocky, whose vernacular was

beche-de-mer and pearls. The Japanese generally treated their aboriginal hired labourers better than white employers did. The last informants on the language had generally grown up with a neighbouring tribe's culture, and Ayapathu was no longer their first language. Thus just as George Rocky primarily spoke Umpila Jack Shephard, whose mother was an Ayapathu, was himself a Kaantju clansman.[5]
The last speakers died out in the late 20th century.

Country

According to Norman Tindale, Ayapathu tribal lands extended over some 1,900 sq. miles, stretching from north of Ebagoola, to Musgrave in the south. Their western boundaries were formed by the headwaters of the Coleman and Holroyd rivers. To the east, they reached the Great Dividing Range and Violet Vale.[6]

History

The Ayapathu were an inland tribe

Wik-Mungkan at the junction where the Hoyroyd meets the Pretender river. The Wik-Mungkan tribe lay to their west, the Kaantju to their north, and the Koko Taiyari southwest.[11] Otherwise they (called Aiyaboto), reduced by pastoral expansion over their lands, gathered for hand-outs on the river bed outside Coen.[12][13] The profound disruption to the Ayapathu caused by colonial expropriations devastated the integrity of their tribal world, and they were dispersed into remnants, with a profound loss of their original tribal identity. In recent years, through ethnographic reconstruction, close study of folk memories and land claims, the Ayapathu descendants have begun to reclaim part of their heritage.[14]

Society

The Ayapathu like other tribes in the area were land-holding exogamous estate-holding clans, typified by patrilineal recruitment. The actual land-use was determined by hordes, whose members were generally affiliated to the tribes holding these estates.[9] The kinship terminology of the Ayapathu was essentially identical to that among the Yintyingka.[3]

Alternative names

This is a list of the different names used in the historical ethnographic literature to refer to the Ayapathu:

  • Aiabadu.
  • Aiyaboto.
  • Jabuda.
  • Koka Ai-ebadu.
  • Aiebadu. (with glottal stop)
  • Koko Aiebadu.
  • Kikahiabilo.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ The word 'tribe' is used with caution. It implied that the Ayapathu were more properly defined as those clans speaking the Ayapathu language, and not 'corporate social groups'.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ Dixon 2002, p. xxxi.
  2. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, pp. 15, 17.
  3. ^ a b Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 51.
  4. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 14.
  5. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 59.
  6. ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 164.
  7. ^ Smith 2000, p. 226.
  8. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, pp. 17–18.
  9. ^ a b Smith 2000, p. 225.
  10. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 18.
  11. ^ McConnel 1930b, p. 191.
  12. ^ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 20.
  13. ^ McConnel 1930a, p. 98.
  14. ^ Smith 2000, p. 224.

References

  • ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1
    .
  • JSTOR 40373036
    .
  • JSTOR 40327320
    .
  • Smith, Benjamin Richard (2000). "The Ayapathu People of Cape York Peninsula:a case of tribal resurgence?" (PDF). Aboriginal Studies. 24: 224–252.
  • ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6
    .
  • Verstraete, Jean-Christophe;
    ISBN 978-1-614-51900-3
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ayapathu&oldid=1009424666"