Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

The maintenance of law and order, social solidarity and cohesion are matters of local control. The sanctions applied by a clan, tribe or linguistic group were usually applied within the group. There can be exceptions, as when more than 1 are involved, being linked by a common culture pattern or close trading links, or share a common sacred and ceremonial bond. A stranger from a different linguistic group, who had no other links to the group, had no ritual status within the group. If the group accepted him as a member, attaching him to a kinship group, he could never be viewed as being as closely related as those from within the group.

The maintenance of order in pre-contact times had very limited, local application. Authority was limited and was overridden by claims of kinship. These factors determined justice. The desire to retaliate in kind is the first reaction to injury, but other factors come into play, such as why that particular person was injured or killed, what were the circumstances? Who was he and who were his kin? Who else is interested in the matter? The identity of the aggressor or aggressors and his/their kin, and the reason for injuring the man. When these questions are asked, others are involved, becoming part of the decision making. When these questions are considered the precedents for the action taken in previous similar cases is discussed. At this point it is the basis of law and regulation. In all parts of pre-contact Aboriginal Australia there were a number of mechanisms for dealing with such situations - the council, the meeting, the magarada or ordeal, armed combat and duel, and the inquest. All these mechanisms are available for the resolution of disputes. The authority system was not strong enough to impose its own penalties, but some have seen indications that it may have actually been much stronger than appears at first sight.

Allowing for the overriding nature of the kinship system, evidence has been seen of a comparatively weak authority and of government, in that law and order are kept within limits. In Aboriginal society the level of self-help is higher and the lack of a central authority is lower than in most other societies.

Generally, in Aboriginal Australia, the people tended to respond to legal action with physical aggression, though a lot of the retaliation involved mostly magic or sorcery. Though this could be as physically damaging as physical violence, as in the case of a person dying because they strongly believed that someone had 'pointed the bone', 'a thought spear', at them, considering it just as deadly. Generally, there appears to have been a tendency towards resolving serious disputes and avoiding escalating them.

Controls operate in regard to sanctioned retaliation in such a way as to restrict the spread of violence and keep the number of killings as low as possible. The influence of kinship can contribute to the spread of violence, but also has an even stronger influence in resolving conflicts.

Capital Punishment - Ritual Killing

Sources & Further reading

1. R.M. & C.H. Berndt, The World of the First Australians, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1964