Kinship Organizations: Australian Aborigines

Kinship Organizations: Australian Aborigines Our world here in the states is unlike many others in places in far away lands. The kinship between our families here in America and in cultures such as Australian Aborigines have so many differences. Their laws in marriage and how society is ran is unlike what you normally see. Some things that the Australian Aborigines practice, such as infanticide, are things that are unknown to the common American. Understanding infanticide, which is “the killing or abandonment of newborn babies [and is] a form of birth spacing that women use when a baby is born deformed, when a new mother is already breastfeed¬ing a young baby, or in times of starvation,”(Laird Ch. 3) can be something that is hard. Unlike here where we live a comfortable life to have multiple children and still be happy, other countries don’t have that option. Instead they find it easier to end a life of a child that would only make their situation worst. If a mother is unable to take care of a child they are not obligated to do so. In the Australian Aborigines’ cultural they tend to lead toward the practice of female infanticide likely because boys would benefit much more then a woman would. No kissing cousins here. One thing that is frowned about here in the States is falling in love and marrying a relative. The family reunion just would not work out. Not even cousins are supposed to find themselves in a relationship. The Aborigines, however, see things a little bit differently. They believe in cross-cousin marriage. Cross cousins are the children of opposite-sex siblings, such as the father’s sister or the mother’s brother. Thus, a man might marry either his father’s sister’s daughter or his mother’s brother’s daughter. Parallel cousins are children of same-sex siblings, such as the father’s brother or the mother’s sister. (Laird Ch. 3).
While they do not practice marriage and baby making between children and their parents or siblings, the culture

References: Laird, P., & Nowak, B. (2010) Cultural anthropology, San Diego, CA; Bridgpoint Education.