Nunggubuyu people
The Nunggubuyu are an
Language
The first dictionary of the language was written by the missionary Earl Hughes, who lived among the Nunggubuy for 17 years and spoke the language fluently.[4] Intensive follow-up work, resulting in two major monographs, was undertaken by Jeffrey Heath in the 1970s.
Country
The Nunggubuyu's traditional lands extended over some 2,700 square miles (7,000 km2) southwards from Cape Barrow and Harris Creek to the coastal area opposite Edward Island, and their western boundaries were formed by the Rose and Walker Rivers.[7]
History
The Nunggubuyu had very important cultural and economic ties with the
Social structure
As elsewhere in Australia, kinship and descent are dominant concerns of Nunggubuyu society. However they do not share the very frequent system of sections and subsections that determine affinal relations in many Australian tribes, but rather interpersonal genealogical relationships undergird the social structure. This feature, anomalous for the area, is one the Nunggubuyu share with Papuan and Melanasian peoples, such as the Marind-Anim people.[10]
The society is structured by a four-fold division covering moieties, phratries, clans and patriarchal lineages.
There are two moieties: the Mandayung (with myths that tend to associate it with continuity and dispute resolution) and the Mandaridja, whose myths suggest experimentation and change. They mirror in some respects the dua/yiridja moiety structures of the Yolngu of northeast Arnhem Land.[citation needed] For this reason Mandaridja people absorb into their totemic systems things that are of foreign provenance, such as ships, planes and tractors. There are two mytho-ritual complexes divided among these respective moieties. The Mandayung are the proprietors of the Gunabibi (Kunapipi) cult, while the Mandaridja control the "Ru:1" cult.[11]
Notes
Citations
- ^ Musgrave & Thieberger 2012, p. 65.
- ^ a b McConvell 2010, p. 772.
- ^ Leeding 1996, p. 193.
- ^ a b Burbank 2011, p. 24.
- ^ Evans 1992, p. 47.
- ^ Grimes 2003, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Tindale 1974, p. 234.
- ^ Heath 1978, p. 16.
- ^ Heath 1982, p. 6.
- ^ van der Leeden 2013, pp. 150, 155.
- ^ van der Leeden 2013, p. 154.
Sources
- Burbank, Victoria Katherine (2011). An Ethnography of Stress: The Social Determinants of Health in Aboriginal Australia. ISBN 978-0-230-11722-8.
- JSTOR 40329241.
- JSTOR 40330404.
- .
- Grimes, Barbara (2003). "Gunwingguan languages". In Frawley, William (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: AAVE-Esperanto. Vol. 1. ISBN 978-0-195-13977-8.
- Heath, Jeffrey (1978). Linguistic diffusion in Arnhem Land. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
- Heath, Jeffrey (1980). Nunggubuyu myths and ethnographic texts (PDF). Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
- Heath, Jeffrey (1982). Nunggubuyu Dictionary (PDF). Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
- van der Leeden, A.C. (2013). "Nunggubuyu Aboriginals and Marind-Anim: Preliminary Comparisons between South-Eastern Arnhem Land and Southern New Guinea". In van Beek, W. E. A.; Scherer, J. H. (eds.). Explorations in the anthropology of religion: Essays in Honour of Jan van Baal. Springer. pp. 147–165. ISBN 978-9-401-74902-2.
- Leeding, Velma J. (1996). "Body parts and possession in Anindilyakwa". In Chappell, Hilary; McGregory, William (eds.). The Grammar of Inalienability: A Typological Perspective on Body Part Terms and the Part-whole Relation. ISBN 978-3-110-12804-8.
- McConvell, Patrick (2010). "Contact and Indigenous Languages in Australia". In Hickey, Raymond (ed.). The Handbook of Language Contact. ISBN 978-1-405-17580-7.
- Musgrave, Simon; Thieberger, Nick (October 2012). Nordhoff, Sebastian (ed.). "Language description and hypertext: Nunggubuyu as a case study" (PDF). Language Documentation & Conservation (Special Publication No. 4). Electronic Grammaticography: 63–77.
- ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.