Sunday, 15 October 2023

Another extract from 'Desert People: Study of the Walbiri Aborigines of Central Australia'

Another extract from
Desert People
M J Meggitt
University of Chicago Press 1962

"In order to support my contention that, in making important
decisions, the people think in terms of genealogy and community
and not of subsection affiliation, I shall present a detailed case history
of the behaviour involved in a dispute over the disposal
of two women in marriage.

Malu djagamara died when his son, Louis djuburula, was a
lad, and Minyana, Malu's brother and Ngalia countryman, acted
as Louis' foster-father. Romeo djuburula, Minyana's son, and
Louis became close friends and often camped and hunted together.
They worked at the Hatches Creek wolfram mines during
the war years and moved to Yuendumu in 1946.

Louis had been circumcised by a "sister's son" and countryman,
the djabangari father (now dead) of Polly and Yma nabanangga,
who had given him Polly (a "in.in.b.d.d.") to "grow up" as a
wife. Later, Louis negotiated with another "sister's son" and
countryman, the djabangari father o£ Milly nabanangga, and
received her as his second wife. Then Polly's father gave him
Yma as a third wife, but, as Romeo had not yet received a
wife from his own circumciser, another djabangari "sister's son"
and countryman, Louis charitably handed Yma on to him.
Soon afterwards, Romeo acquired Minnie nabanangga, the wife
due to him, but also retained Yma. Finally, Louis arranged with
Minora djabangari, Milly's father's brother, to receive Elizabeth
nabanangga as another wife. Elizabeth was the daughter of
Minora's wife, Ruby nambidjimba, by a previous husband who
was the father's brother of Polly. During the time Romeo and
Louis had camped and worked together, they had often exchanged
wives temporarily.

In 1949 or 1950 Romeo became insane and was taken from
Yuendumu to the Alice Springs hospital for observation and
treatment. He returned to Yuendumu some months later, apparently
cured. Louis told me that Romeo had several times before
behaved similarly, and his description of Romeo's behaviour
was of a manic-depressive syndrome. In 1952 Louis and Romeo
and their five wives were in the large party of Walbiri sent to
Hooker Creek. Within a few months Romeo again lapsed into
a depressed state, which culminated during Easter 1953 in a
violent outburst. He assaulted several men for no apparent
reason and, when placed under restraint, attempted to commit
suicide. He was sent to the Darwin hospital and, following a
diagnosis of insanity, was taken to Alice Springs. When Romeo
left Hooker Creek, Louis brought Yma and Minnie into his own
camp and treated them as his own wives. At the time, he and
other interested men asserted that he did this solely to protect
the women, whom he would relinquish when Romeo came back.

By May 1953, however, some of the men were ready to accept
the superintendent's statement that Romeo was unlikely to
return - a contingency that would radically alter the status of
his wives. If he had withdrawn permanently from the society,
he was "dead" and his "widows" would have to remarry. Louis
would have none of this view; Romeo had come back before,
he said, and would do so again. Although fraternal affection
partly determined Louis' attitude, he also knew he could not
admit openly that Romeo was "dead", for the levirate would
then operate to his disadvantage. A widow should be given to
the deceased's "junior brother" and Louis was Romeo's senior
brother. Moreover, in the people's eyes, Louis was Romeo's own
brother; and a man should not accept his own brother's widows
lest their presence revive the keen grief he must feel for the dead
man.

Soon most of Louis' countrymen overtly opposed his keeping
the two women. Although some were genuinely concerned at
his flouting convention, others simply envied him his five wives.
Not even the old men, they said, had more than three wives
each. Yarry djabangari, a junior half-brother of Milly's late
father and of Minora, the step-father of Polly, Yma, and Elizabeth,
became the informal leader of Louis' critics. They not
only included the countrymen who hoped to marry the women
in question but also those who simply wanted to see fair play.

Two men in particular stood to gain if Louis relinquished
Romeo's wives. Paddy djuburula, a countryman and distant
junior brother o£ Louis, was the "M.M.B.D.S." of Yma and
Minnie. Although he had a wife, she was much older than he
and was an economic dependant rather than an asset to him;
he therefore needed another wife. Charlie djuburula, the junior
half-brother of Romeo, was a bachelor whose betrothed was only
three years old. Although in theory he was too closely related to
Romeo to receive one Of the women, the men who wished to
embarrass Louis were ready to overlook this obstacle. Indeed,
Yarry soon devised a plan to meet the problem. He demanded
that Louis give up his youngest wife, 12-years-old Elizabeth, who,
he argued, was really too immature for sexual intercourse; her
services were thus unnecessary to a man with four adult wives.
If Louis surrendered Elizabeth, no stigma of widowhood would
bar her from either Charlie and Paddy, and he could then retain
Yma and Minnie. But Louis stubbornly refused to accept this
compromise, and he and Yarry came to blows.

Already I had been told repeatedly that the whole affair legitimately
concerned only the Ngalia people in the camp. Members
of other communities held no rights in the dispute, for none of
them was in any way a "marriage boss" of the two women. Thus,
neither old Danny djungarai, their distant Waneiga "M.M.B.",
nor Ginger djabangari, their distant Waneiga "father", could
dictate their disposal. Yarry djabangari, on the other hand, was
in a strong position. Not only was he both a countryman and a
close father of the disputed women (being a half-brother of
their step-father), but his own wife's brother, Silent djambidjimba,
was also their close mother's brother; that is to say, Yarry had
married into their matriline. This gave him an advantage over
his own half-brother, Donny, whose wives came from a different
matriline, and even over old Mick, the women's step-father's
brother. Moreover, Mick lacked the personal drive necessary to
maintain pressure on Louis and would have been no match
for him in a fight.

Yarry's status had been clearly indicated in an earlier and
unrelated quarrel. Wagulgari djungarai had assaulted Yma when
she reprimanded him for stealing food from Louis' camp. Yarry
had defended her and thrashed Wagulgari, with no assistance
from either Donny or Mick. Wagulgari's father, Wally djabaldjari,
had in turn attacked Yarry, splitting his head and breaking
one of his fingers. Yarry then split old Wally's head open and
left him badly shaken. This fight accounted for Wally's vacillation
in the subsequent arguments over the women.

Silent, the uncle o£ Yma and Minnie, was not a forceful person,
although his quietness could be deceptive; despite his status as
close mother's brother, he was content to let Yarry do most of
the shouting. Two other young men, Norman and Long Jim
djambidjimba, were not of the women's matriline but were
involved as their countrymen and fairly close "mother's brothers".
Windy and Larry djungarai were also concerned, but only as
couhtrymen; although they were "M.M.B.", they were of another
matriline. Jack djagamara and his wife's brother, Wally djabaldjari,
were countrymen and the close "father" and "mother's
brother" respectively of the disputing djuburula men.

Meanwhile another dispute had broken out in the camp.
Windy djungarai, who was married to his "in.b.d.", Kitty naburula,
tired of her constant nagging and announced that he would
take a second wife, his widowed "in.in.b.d.d.", Joan nangala.
Two of the latter's co-widows had already been given to old
Danny djungarai, the countryman and "brother" of their late
husband; but Joan had remained for about nine months in the
widows' camp, during which time Windy had occasionally slept
with her. A few men grumbled at Windy's announcement, for
he was not a countryman of the dead djungarai man, but most
approved the proposed marriage. They knew that Joan had
previously been the mistress of her distant "son", Alec 11 djabaldjari,
and they were now anxious to see her safely married to a
suitable "M.M.B.D.S."

A few days after Louis and Yarry had fought for the first
time, the hawker paid a visit to Hooker Creek. He wished to
engage a married couple to work for him at Top Springs, so
Kitty, seeing an opportunity to separate Windy from Joan,
applied for the job. She had already asserted publicly that Joan
had been performing sorcery to make her ill and that she feared
to remain in the camp. But, despite her appeals, Windy refused
to go with the hawker. Hurt and indignant, Kitty took her child
and moved to the widows' camp. Next day, when Windy again
told her that he intended to marry Joan, Kitty upbraided him
and belaboured Joan with a club. Alec 11, angered by the loss
of his ex-mistress, also joined in and split open ]oan's head.

Throughout this dispute, Kitty's comments indicated that,
as Windy's "in.b.d.", she felt her marital status to be quite
insecure. She was merely an "alternative" wife, and she feared
that public opinion would support Windy.'s desire for a "preferred"
wife or "in.in.b.d.d." A temporary reconciliation followed
Kitty's fight with Joan, chiefly because Windy did not wish his
little daughter, Topsy, to live in the widows' camp. He brought
Kitty back to his camp and offered to postpone making a decision
about Joan. But, within a fortnight, he was once more sleeping
with Joan; and the two women fought again. Joan received a
broken finger and Kitty a split head. Kitty moved to the widows'
camp, and Joan entered Windy's camp as his wife. A few days
later, Jack djagamara and Wally djabaldjari, the countrymen
and close father and mother's brother respectively of Kitty, gave
her in marriage to Comedy djabanangga, her unmarried
"M.M.B.D.S." and countryman. Kitty's daughter went with her.

This rearrangement of women again focused public attention
on the wives of Louis djuburula. Kitty was a close sister and
countrywoman o£ Charlie djuburula and, when she married
Comedy, Charlie asked for one of Comedy's close sisters in return
- in particular, he wanted Louis' wife, Milly, with whom he had
had an affair in the past. He could not have made a more unfortunate
choice. Milly was not only Louis' favourite wife but was
also the mother of his only child, Della, on whom he doted.
Louis naturally rejected Charlie's demand and, when Charlie
threatened to spear Louis, Milly's "fathers", Yarry and Donny
djabangari, intervened to warn him off. Although they privately
sympathized with Charlie, they could not openly support his
show of force nor his selection of the only mother among Louis'
wives. Indeed, Milly herself did not wish to join Charlie. When
she said so, Netta, the wife of Jack djagamara and the close
mother o£ Charlie, at once attacked her for not favouring Charlie.
She broke Milly's hand and received a split head in return. Alec
11 promptly took advantage of the general confusion to thrash
his ex-mistress, Joan, once more to punish her for deserting him.
Windy retaliated but did him no serious harm.

An uneasy peace followed the fights. Kitty several times stated
that she wished to return to Windy. Although Comedy was a
handsome and dignified young man, kind and attentive to Kitty
and her daughter, and was also her "proper" husband, Kitty
found the ties of her earlier marriage were still strong. Her
"marriage bosses", however, ordered her to remain with Comedy.
Windy in any case was now satisfied with the taciturn Joan and
had no desire to listen again to Kitty's nagging. Occasionally
old Danny djungarai, who had acquired both of ]oan's cowidows,
made a disturbance by ordering Windy to hand Joan
over to him; but, as Danny was too old to support his unreasonable
demands with force, Windy simply ignored the outbursts.

By now Louis had openly claimed Yma and Minnie as his
jural wives and asserted that he would not surrender them.
Consequently, many men who had earlier regarded Romeo as
dead now hoped that he would return and spear Louis for his
presumption. Then in August Louis made a move nicely calculated
to detach at least one man frcm the ranks of his opponents.
In the widows' camp dwelt Rosie naburula, whose husband had
gone to Yuendumu and left her and her seven-years-old daughter,
Florrie, temporarily under the protection of her close brother,
Louis. Florrie was already betrothed to Silent, the mother's
brother of Yma and Minnie, so Louis (quite legitimately) urged
Rosie to send the girl to Silent at once. By thus anticipating
Silent's request, Louis hoped to place him under a debt of
gratitude and gain his support in the dispute. His action did
in i.act keep Silent more or less neutral in the interminable discussions
still in progress.

At this stage of the dispute, Louis was advancing a number of
arguments to justify his retention of the two women:
(a) When Romeo had been removed, he had freely "given"
the women to Louis. (As Romeo was insane and under restraint
for several days before his departure, this seems improbable.)
(b) Wally and Larry, the women's countrymen, had advised
Louis to keep the women. (Wally had certainly done so, just
as he had pressed Yarry to act against Louis. Disliking both men,
he was ready to say anything that would keep the quarrel alive.
His close son, Larry, half-heartedly supported Louis, for he had
not forgiven Yarry's earlier attack on old Wally.)
(c) The women's close mother's brothers had told Louis to
retain the women. (This was true; Silent was under an obligation
to Louis, while both Norman and Long Jim disapproved of the
frequency with which Yarry beat his own wives, who were their
close sisters.)
(d) Mick, a close father of the women, had supported Louis'
claim. (Unfortunately for Louis, Mick's opinions varied with
his audiences, and he had just as readily assured Yarry that Louis
had no right to the women.)
(e) Louis and Romeo had regularly exchanged wives
past. (This fact was simply irrelevant to the question
permanent disposal Of the women.)
(f) Yma had once been Louis' own wife and he had given
her freely to Romeo. (For most men, this was the strongest basis
o£ Louis' claim.)

Yarry, as the spokesman for the opposition, put forward a
number of counter arguments:
(a) If Romeo was "dead", Louis was obviously too close a
brother to receive the women through the levirate. (Most men
agreed that this was an importam consideration.)
(b) 1£ Romeo was not "dead", his wives should live chastely
in the widows' camp until he returned. (This was Yarry's own
re-interpretation of customary procedure to meet a novel situation;
few men accepted it.)
(c) As it seemed unlikely that Romeo would return, the
women should be given to his "younger brothers", Charlie and
Paddy, who were in need of active, adult wives. (This was also
a strong argument.)
(d) The opinions of Silent, Norman and Long Jim had no
force, for there were closer mother's brothers of the women
living at Yuendumu. (Yarry was on shaky ground here. Not only
was Silent a very close uncle, but also, in the absence of any
actual mother's brothers, all three men did have the right to
discuss the women's disposal.)
(e) As close fathers, Yarry and Donny had as much authority
over the women as did Mick and Minora. (This was true of
Yarry, but not of Donny.)
(f) Irrespective of all other considerations, Louis should not
have had five wives; this was too many for any man.

Many of the men were by this time wearying of the dispute,
and Yarry feared that he would lose their tacit support. So, to
revive their interest, he personally took the quarrel to Louis.
After a noisy argument that lasted all one night, Yarry chal-
1enged him to a public duel. Onlookers were unsure what Yarry
hoped to achieve by this; but they all agreed that, whoever won,
Yarry could not in clear conscience pursue his vendetta if he
wounded Louis. Louis was eager to capitalize on Yarry's tactical
error and next day came heavily armed to one side of the
general camp. Yarry, similarly armed, appeared at the other side.

All the women and children had been sent away; the other
men sat talking in the middle of the camp and ostentatiously
ignored the combatants. After a pregnant silence, Yarry burst
into a long tirade, in which he touched on Louis' sexual habits
and immoral behaviour, while he extolled the purity of his
own motives. Louis replied in similar vein but with a humour
that drew chuckles from the audience. As Yarry's anger mounted,
everyone took cover. He then hurled boomerangs at Louis and
narrowly missed him. Quick to put Yarry at a disadvantage,
Louis did not retaliate; but his distant "mother's brother",
slow-witted Jimmy djabaldjari, marred the effect of this shrewd
self-restraint by throwing a boomerang at Yarry and hitting
Alec I djabaldjari in error. Incensed, Alec returned the blow,
and everyone was swept into the confused brawl that erupted.

Louis' moderation on this occasion had gained him some
sympathy, but his stubborn determination to keep five wives
still galled many men. Yarry realized that, although he had
lost ground by demanding the abortive duel, he could still
exert a certain amount of pressure on Louis. The general attitude
in the camp now was that Louis should relinquish one
of his wives, so that public opinion would prevent Yarry from
carrying on the dispute.

Meanwhile, Louis was having domestic troubles. Emboldened
by his general unpopularity, Charlie, Paddy and Jim Tulum
djuburula took every opportunity to copulate with his wives-
Charlie with Milly, Paddy with Minnie, and Jim with Yma.
Louis could not watch all the women simultaneously and, as
he knew what was afoot, he daily grew more morose. The fact
that everyone was aware of the situation and did not trouble to
hide their smiles added to his discomfort. Moreover, Yma and
Minnie had been growing less willing to be members of a group
of five co-wives, so that Louis' uncertain temper simply increased
their desire to find other husbands.

Up to this point, none of the men in the dispute had bothered
to consult the opinions of the women concerned; such an action
would have been foreign to the accepted way of arranging
marriages. Consequently, the next episode in the chain of
events startled everyone. The five wives o£ Louis simply took
up their swags and moved to the widows' camp, announcing
that they were tired of the whole affair and would remain with
the widows until they had decided what they wanted to do.
All the men were quite at a loss, for, as they told me ruefully,
this sort of thing had never happened before. Indeed, they saw
the "revolt" as a direct attack on male prestige. Had there been
no European authority present to shield the women, the latter
would have been thrashed into submission; but, as it was, all
the men, even including Yarry; found themselves supporting
Louis' attempts to induce the women to return to his camp.

Within a few days, however, the rebels' solidarity had weakened
to the extent that Polly and Elizabeth visited Louis' camp
to cook his food and to sleep with him. The other three women,
having lovers, were content to remain in the widows' camp.
Wally and Mick then urged Louis to give up Milly and, if necesssary,
Minnie, while they tried to persuade Yma to rejoin him.
Louis flatly refused to do this; he wanted his daughter, Della,
to return with Milly. He seemed also to place greater reliance
on the efficacy of the love-magic he was performing in the bush
than on the success of human intervention.

It was now October, and public attention was diverted from
Louis' problems by the preparations for the opening ceremonies
connected with the circumcision of two djabanangga boys, the
sons o£ Yarry and Mick. As all the djuburula men concerned
in the dispute over the women were the close "sister's husbands"
of the novices, they were deeply involved in these ceremonies and
had little opportunity for argument. Indeed, quarrelling would
have been most improper in these circumstances, a fact that the
ritual "bosses" of the boys clearly had in mind when they
organized the lads' seclusion.

By the time the circumcision ceremonies had concluded, all
o£ Louis' wives were again residing in his camp, although three
of them still met their lovers regularly in the bush. Louis began
one inconclusive fight with Jim Tulum over the latter's association
with Yma, but, deciding that three half-loaves were better
than none, he did not go on with the matter. A few days later,
however, when Yma returned from another tryst with Tulum
(who was then tailing cattle), she was savagely beaten by Big
Polly, the wife of Romeo's father's brother, Jack djagamara. Big
Polly asserted that Romeo would one day come home; until then
Yma and Minnie should live chastely in the widows' camp. Yma
was badly knocked about in this encounter; but Louis took no
overt action. Instead, he slipped into the camp of the absent
Tulum and seduced the latter's young wife, Nellie, who was also
his "in.in.b.d.d." A noisy argument followed when Tulum learned
of this, but he did not attack Louis. He considered his liaison
with Yma to be adequate compensation.

Shortly after this affair, Milly discovered that she was pregnant.
Although everyone in the camp was sure that Charlie was
the father, Louis, desirous of more children, said nothing. Childless
Polly, who had generally stood by Louis in his troubles,
envied Milly's good fortune and was angered by Louis' complacent
acceptance of the situation. She therefore thrashed Milly
with a club and, when Louis intervened, turned on him and
broke his forearm. He made very little fuss about his injury,
for he did not wish to antagonize Polly further. But, from then
on, she spent more time in the widows' camp than she did with
Louis.

In November a working party that included Paddy djuburula
camped for several weeks at the Seven Miles Bore to cut fenceposts.
In its absence Louis at last decided he could no longer
tolerate his unhappy domestic arrangements. He publicly withdrew
his claim to Minnie and sent her to live in the widows'
camp. Charlie djuburula, who now realized that he had little
hope of detaching Milly permanently from Louis, promptly
severed his association with her and made Minnie his mistress.
At the same time he announced that he wished to marry Minnie.
While Yarry, Donny, Mick, Silent and the other interested men
were debating his request, Paddy returned from the bore. He
was furious when he found that he had been forestalled, and
he kept up a running argument with Charlie for days. This
culminated in a bloody duel with knives.

Yarry, as a close father of the disputed woman, intervened on
Paddy's behalf, for he had borne a grudge against Charlie for
some time. Charlie had been a ritual guardian during the recent
seclusion of Yarry's son, and it was strongly suspected that he
had practised sodomy with the boy. As definite evidence was
lacking, Yarry had simply berated Charlie, whose mother's
brother, Wally djabaldjari, had also beaten him with a boomerang.
Now, when Paddy and Charlie began to fight, Yarry tried
to spear the latter. Silent, Minnie's close mother's brother and
Charlie's friend, protected Charlie from Yarry, whereupon Comedy,
Yarry's close son, broke Silent's arm with a boomerang.
All the countrymen then joined in the fight - including Rosie and
Kitty naburula, who split open Minnie's head as punishment for
causing trouble between their close brothers.

Charlie and Paddy, meanwhile, had hacked each other's back
and shoulders to ribbons, until both had collapsed, exhausted.
As each had drawn blood in great quantities, their dispute was
ended; so they sat peacefully side by side and watched the rest
of their countrymen brawl around them. The genuineness of
their reconciliation was indicated later when Paddy publicly
supported Charlie's demand for Minnie. Yarry then did not
oppose the request; he regarded his vendetta with Louis as more
important than his grudge against Charlie. Within a month,
Minnie was installed in Charlie's camp as his wife.

Louis had carefully kept out of these quarrels, and his next
action was to negotiate with old William djuburula for a temporary
exchange of wives. Polly, who objected to being one o£
four co-wives, had been spending more time in the widows'
camp. This was largely a matter of principle with her, for she had
no lover. Louis, therefore, suggested that she live with William
for a few weeks. In his camp she would be one of only two
co-wives. Polly agreed, and William gave Louis his senior wife,
Melba, in return. In this way Louis made it unlikely that Polly's
discontent would lead her to take a lover, but at the same time
he retained his jural claim on her. In addition, he acquired the
dubious privilege of sleeping with Melba, who, by Walbiri standards,
was extraordinarily ugly. The arrangement lasted for about
three weeks, when Polly said she wanted to return to Louis. I
do not know whether Louis counted on Polly's revulsion from
the older man sending her back to him and not to the widows'
camp, but I suspect that he did. He was a very shrewd man.

By January 1954 a position had been reached that was unchanged
when I left Hooker Creek in March. Kitty and Comedy,
Windy and Joan, and Charlie and Minnie were legally married.
Milly and Elizabeth resided with Louis and had no lovers. Polly,
also without a lover, alterated between Louis' camp and that of
the widows, despite his attempts to induce her to remain with
him permanently. Yma lived in Louis' camp, but she continued
her covert association with Jim Tulum. Louis knew of this, and
the two men frequently quarrelled. All the countrymen of Louis
who had previously busied themselves with his affairs now elaborately
ignored his problems. Having forced him to relinquish one
of the women, they were content to let matters rest for a time.
But I have no doubt that, using the same technique of attrition,
they later managed to detach either Polly or Yma from his menage.

This history has several interesting aspects. It clearly illustraces
the virtual absence of private life in an Aboriginal community
and indicates how mechanisms of social control operate
when a person flouts convention but does not transgress basic
laws. Louis' countrymen were not aiming to punish him formally;
they merely wished to bring him back into line with the group.
Notice how the chain of events appeared to trail off inconclusively.
This was precisely what`Louis' critics desired, for it left
the way open for them to renew the pressure on him whenever
they chose to do so. None wanted a cut-and-dried settlement of
the dispute.

But what is most to the point here is the demonstration of the
way in which the Walbiri take genealogical connection and community
affiliation to be the significant determinants of the exercise
of authority in general and of marriage arrangements in particular.
Kinship provides the framework wit.him which wives are
selected and, in conjunction with community membership, defines
the people who have the right to allocate specific women
as those wives. Thus, throughout the protracted and complicated
manoeuvrings I have just described, none of the protagonists
tried to justify his actions by invoking subsection affiliation, nor
were any of the relevant rules and conventions ever formulated
in such terms." 

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