Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/311

V indicated in his paper, "The Origin of Totemism" (Fortnightly Review, May 1899, p. 841, note 2). Dr. Frazer also called my attention to the fact that in The Mystic Rose (London, 1902), pp. 469 sqq., Mr. E. Crawley has independently reached nearly the same conclusions, though he has given an undue extension to the exogamous prohibitions which result from the subdivision of the community into four exogamous sections. That Dr. Frazer is right in his view of the effect of the successive segmentation of the community into two and four exogamous sections, will be seen from the following diagrams:—

This gives the marriages and descents in tribes having female descent, which extend over a great part of south-east Australia. It shows the universal practice of exchange of sisters which in those tribes accompanies exogamy. This segmentation prevents the marriage of brother and sister, but not that of parent and child, as for instance 1 and 4, or 2 and 3.

The next step in providing restrictions on marriages which are deemed incestuous, is the resegmentation of the two classes into four. This is shown by the two following diagrams:—

This shows the marriages and descents under the exogamous law of the four sub-classes with female descent, which may be more clearly seen in the following diagram:—