Speaking Kunjen: an ethnography of Oykangand kinship and communication Pacific Linguistics 582 Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, southeast and south Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise, who are usually not members of the editorial board. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bowden, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon (Managing Editors), I Wayan Arka, David Nash, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell, Jane Simpson EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Karen Adams, Arizona State University Lillian Huang, National Taiwan Normal Alexander Adelaar, University of Melbourne University Peter Austin, School of Oriental and African Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Atma Studies Jaya Byron Bender, University of Hawai‘i Marian Klamer, Universiteit Leiden Walter Bisang, Johannes Gutenberg- Harold Koch, The Australian National Universität Mainz University Robert Blust, University of Hawai‘i Frantisek Lichtenberk, University of David Bradley, La Trobe University Auckland Lyle Campbell, University of Utah John Lynch, University of the South Pacific James Collins, Universiti Kebangsaan Patrick McConvell, Australian Institute of Malaysia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Studies Evolutionary Anthropology William McGregor, Aarhus Universitet Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, Universitas Atma Ulrike Mosel, Christian-Albrechts- Jaya Universität zu Kiel Matthew Dryer, State University of New York Claire Moyse-Faurie, Centre National de la at Buffalo Recherche Scientifique Jerold A. Edmondson, University of Texas Bernd Nothofer, Johann Wolfgang Goethe- at Arlington Universität Frankfurt am Main Nicholas Evans, University of Melbourne Ger Reesink, Universiteit Leiden Margaret Florey, Monash University Lawrence Reid, University of Hawai‘i William Foley, University of Sydney Jean-Claude Rivierre, Centre National de la Karl Franklin, Summer Institute of Recherche Scientifique Linguistics Melenaite Taumoefolau, University of Charles Grimes, Universitas Kristen Artha Auckland Wacana Kupang Tasaku Tsunoda, University of Tokyo Nikolaus Himmelmann, Ruhr-Universität John Wolff, Cornell University Bochum Elizabeth Zeitoun, Academica Sinica Speaking Kunjen: an ethnography of Oykangand kinship and communication Bruce A. Sommer Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Copyright in this edition is vested with Pacific Linguistics First published 2006 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Bruce A. Sommer Speaking Kunjen: an ethnography of Oykangand kinship and communication Bibliography ISBN 0 85883 557 6. 1. Oykangand language. 2. Kinship – Australia – Terminology. 3. Aboriginal Australians – Kinship I. The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. II. Title. (Pacific Linguistics 582) 499.15 Copyedited by Jason Lee Typeset by Jeanette Coombes Cover design by Addcolour Digital Printed and bound by Addcolour Digital, Fyshwick, Canberra To WJO and LFO — kinsmen after the order of Jesus Christ — and to EGS — a kinsman through alliance as well. Table of contents List of maps, figures and tables x Acknowledgements xii Prologue xiv Scenario One xiv Scenario Two xv Scenario Three xv Scenario Four xvi Chapter 1: Language and kinship 1 A beginning 1 Chapter 2: Introducing the Oykangand 6 Location and neighbours 6 The Oykangand and the character of this study 8 Donald Crimm and Kunjen kinship 10 The use of kinship terms and personal names 13 Chapter 3: Theoretical matters I: The Kariera kinship model 28 Introduction 28 The Kariera kinship system of the Oykangand 28 Chapter 4: Theoretical matters II: Frames of reference 39 Introduction 39 The work of Michael H Agar 41 Frames from yet other scholarship 46 Further traditions of scholarship 52 This ethnography 53 Chapter 5: Kinship and language I: Descent and alliance 54 Introduction 54 What kinship means to verbal behaviour — a beginning 54 An exception: when kinship doesn’t count 56 vii viii Oykangand kinship 59 A theory of Oykangand kinship 59 The derivation of kin terms I 62 The ‘great grandson’ rule 64 Linguistic adjustments to apparent generational discrepancies 66 Sister exchange 69 First cousin marriage prohibitions 72 The ‘change of generation’ rule 74 Avoidance ad infinitum 76 Adoption 77 Betrothal ad infinitum 79 ‘Male wives’ and ‘female husbands’ 80 The derivation of kin terms II 81 Body parts and kin terms 86 Living with the system 87 A system of adjustments 89 Summary 93 Chapter 6: Kinship and language II: Disrespect, respect and the Obm curse 95 Apparent disrespect: obscene joking 95 Obscene joking and verbal abuse 98 The function of swearing in jural redress 101 Joking and avoidance 103 Practical jokes 104 The forms of avoidance: social 104 The forms of avoidance: linguistic 107 The respect vocabulary 110 Obm: ‘poison’ 112 Summary 128 Chapter 7: Kinship and language III: The language of death 131 Introduction 131 The Oykangand traditions of grief and separation 132 The ritual cleansing: smell, smoke and fire 144 Release and remarriage 149 The derivation and use of kin terms III 150 Summary 152 Chapter 8: Names and naming 153 Introduction 153 Inheritance: myths, and the problem of named sections 153 ix Personal names and story-figures 158 Naming the species 162 Shared names 165 The name of the dead 166 Summary: names, naming and kinship 168 Chapter 9: Conclusions 170 Overview 170 Some general themes 172 Methodological and practical limitations 175 Frames 175 Kinship and the frame 178 Summary 180 Appendix 1: Conventions for representing the Oykangand language and kinship 183 Language 183 Morphology 184 Other conventions 185 Kinship 185 Appendix 2: Texts 188 Introduction 188 Lawrence’s new gun 188 The Bowman story 194 Patsy and Carolyn: sex and booze 198 Minnie’s lament 203 Abmbandhang 210 Geese eggs: Version I 220 Geese eggs: Version II 228 Conclusion 240 References 241 List maps, figures and tables Map 1: The location of Oykangand estates according to Roth (1899 and 1910) 9 Map 2: The estates of the Oykangand along the Mitchell River 15 Figure 3.1: The Kariera system as recorded by [Radcliffe-]Brown (1913:152) 32 Figure 5.1: The immediate relationships of M and Q 57 Figure 5.2a: Oykangand kinship from the perspective of a male EGO 60 Figure 5.2b: Oykangand kinship from the perspective of a female EGO 61 Figure 5.3: Artificial change of generation by the ‘great grandson’ rule 65 Figure 5.4: Linguistic adjustments to apparent discrepancies 66 Figure 5.5: The implications of sister exchange 69 Figure 5.6: A case of sister exchange and the marriage of a man to a FZD 71 Figure 5.7: A case of illicit sister exchange 72 Figure 5.8: The asymmetry of actual first cross cousin relationships 73 Figure 5.9: An ‘Artificial change of generation’ in Oykangand 75 Figure 5.10: The perpetuation of avoidance 76 Figure 5.11a: Adoption and the perpetuation of betrothals I 77 Figure 5.11b: Adoption and the perpetuation of betrothals II 78 Figure 5.12: Adoption versus physiological paternity 78 Figure 5.13: Male wives and female husbands 80 Table 5.1: The respect forms of Uw OykaNand 83 Figure 5.15: Close and distant kin 88 Figure 5.7a: The case of illicit sister exchange; extended 89 Figure 5.16: The category of ubman aţalγar ‘grandson’ 90 Figure 5.17: A system of adjustments 91 Figure 5.18: The manipulated failure of the adoption principle 92 Figure A.1: The significant speech sounds of Kunjen (Oykangand) 183 Figure A5.2a: Oykangand kinship from the perspective of a male EGO 186 Figure A5.2b: Oykangand kinship from the perspective of a female EGO 187 x xi Table 6.1: The source of some respect forms 111 Tables 6.2 and 6.3: Diagrammatic summary of obm usage 129 Table 7.1: ‘Bereaved kinsman’ terms 151 Table 8.1: Aghu Tharrnggala sections 156 Table 8.2: Interpretation of Sharp’s section names 157 Table 8.3: Personal names attached to the emu totem 159 Table 8.4: Onomatopoeic names for species 162 Table 8.5: The nicknames of various species 163 Table 8.6: Regular names, nicknames and ononmatopoeic names of two birds 163 Table 8.7: Alternative names of six species 164 Table 8.8: Probable lexical innovations from species’ nicknames 164 Acknowledgements Because this volume reports research that began in the early 1970s and has continued intermittently over about thirty years, a list of the large number of people who have made a contribution, whether practical, or administrative, or inspirational, or social, or intellectual or with sociolinguistic data and observations, would read rather like a city telephone directory or the credits for Ben Hur. I simply can’t recall all those occasions or the names of all those faces; forgive me any omissions, please! Even so, where do I start? Obviously, with the Kunjen people themselves: tragically, the Kunjen friends who made the most generous contributions to this work have all passed away. Only Alma Wason is still living at the time of writing. I sincerely thank her. I can only hope that all the others, including her sister, Judy Brumby and my fictive kin: sister, Elizabeth Henry, brothers Nelson, Frank and George Brumby, daughter Kathleen Major, cousins Pansy Zingle and Maudie Frazer, together with Lawrence Dunbar and his wife Doris, my beloved uncle, Cecil Rutland and Gracie, his wife, and my father, Jimmy Koolatah, would have felt that their efforts to teach me their language and way of life had borne some fruit.