Australian Aborigines have a complex kinship; in their social and marriage laws. To understand their complex social organization it must be divided into three parts. The first part is the physical structure of society it is broken down by family, horde, and tribe. Second, is the religious structure based on beliefs, customs, totems and marriage laws. () These beliefs divide into sections, subsections, totemic groups and clans. Last is the kinship system that gives a social this system social structuring. The social structuring and kinship system is sometimes difficult for non-Aboriginal people to understand because everyone is related to one another; but it is a natural part of life for Aborigines, and the details of the kinship vary from tribe to tribe.
There are three main features of the Aboriginal social structure. The first part is the geographical structuring of the society. A tribe of around 500 people is made up of bands of about ten to twenty people each. () The bands join together for gathering of food and hunting. Each band of people is called a horde; and within the horde there are a number of families. The second part is the religious structuring of the society. It is divided into two moieties; in each moiety there are animals, plants, or places that are highly religious. Each person belongs to one or the other moiety and is connected to one or more of these subjects called totems.()The third part of their social structuring is the relationships between people, otherwise the kinship system. Their kinship system structures connections, responsibilities, and actions toward one another. This system defines “who will look after children if a parent dies, who can marry whom, who is responsible for another person’s debts or misdeeds, and who will care for the sick and old.” They also have about 70 relationship terms and often refer to each other as brother or sister.
Because of the way the kinship is structured and everyone is related to everyone else in...