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The Seasonal Factor in Human Culture Illustrated from the Life of a Contemporary Nomadic Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Donald F. Thomson
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Extract

In the interpretation of the evidence provided by archaeological investigation it is important to realise its limitations, and to appreciate the complexity of the factors involved. From this point of view it is hoped that a demonstration of the influence of the seasonal factor in the life of a contemporary nomadic hunting group, living under ‘stone age’ conditions in Northern Australia, showing the close relationship in which these people stand to their environment, and demonstrating the influence of the seasonal cycle, and even of seasonal fluctuations, upon their local movements and occupations, may be of interest. It will be apparent that an onlooker, seeing these people at different seasons of the year, would find them engaged in occupations so diverse, and with weapons and utensils differing so much in character, that if he were unaware of the seasonal influence on food supply, and consequently upon occupation, he would be led to conclude that they were different groups.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , December 1939 , pp. 209 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1939

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References

page 211 note 1 A clan in a patrilineal society is the group consisting of a man and all his relatives in the male line; that is, his father, his father's brothers and sisters, his own brothers and sisters, and his own sons and daughters, together with all the children of the male members of the clan only. All these men, however, marry women who are members of other clans, and their sisters and daughters also marry men of other clans and become members of these groups. So that the group of people popularly spoken of as a ‘camp’, that is found at any time within a clan territory, really consists of members of many clans, and for this group the term horde will be used. It is in reality an aggregation of families of the male members of the clan.

page 212 note 1 It should be stressed that there is nothing artificial about this classification, which is entirely that of the Wik Monkan natives themselves; this list could be much extended. In each case the natives gave me spontaneously, the names of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, which are characteristic of the type of association.