Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/114

 CHAPTER III

SOCIAL ORGANISATION

It may be laid down as a general rule that all Australian tribes are divided into two moieties, which intermarry, but each of which is forbidden to marry within itself.

For these two moieties the term "classes" used by Dr. Lorimer Fison and myself, and since adopted by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, and other writers on Australian anthropology, may now be regarded as the recognised term. The expression "tribe" has been used by some writers in this sense, but the "tribe" includes two organisations, the "local," already described, and the "social," to be dealt with now. The terms "clan" and "phratry" are both objectionable, because a definite meaning has become attached to