A video presentation by Nic Peterson

In an April 2020 virtual workshop for NTRBs based in Cairns, Nic Peterson provided a brief introduction to some basic features of Aboriginal kinship, focusing on the different ways in which people are classified: as relatives, by descent, and by moieties, as well as the difference between cross and parallel cousins.  I look at what W. H. Rivers meant by the ‘Genealogical Method’ before talking about some practical issues in the taking of extended and brief genealogies.  The talk ends with reference to the way that the large age difference at marriage between girls and their first husband in classical promise marriage systems. Such systems were operative in remote Australia until the 1970s, and greatly affected kinship, genealogy, and the social systems more generally.