. Across Australia . upon them has been pbliterated byconstant rubbing ; for every now and then, when sacredceremonies are being enacted, some of the Churinga willbe brought on to the ceremonial ground and reverendyrubbed with grease and red ochre while the older mentell the younger ones the names and deeds of those towhom they once belonged (Fig. 107). Each ceremony issupposed to represent some episode in the life of an ancestorand, endless as these ceremonies are, they are matters ofdeep importance to the natives. In the Arunta tribe eachChuringa and ceremony also is the property of someindi
. Across Australia . upon them has been pbliterated byconstant rubbing ; for every now and then, when sacredceremonies are being enacted, some of the Churinga willbe brought on to the ceremonial ground and reverendyrubbed with grease and red ochre while the older mentell the younger ones the names and deeds of those towhom they once belonged (Fig. 107). Each ceremony issupposed to represent some episode in the life of an ancestorand, endless as these ceremonies are, they are matters ofdeep importance to the natives. In the Arunta tribe eachChuringa and ceremony also is the property of someindividual who has received it by inheritance from hisfather or his fathers brother. No woman at the presentday is supposed actually to own any Churinga, thoughthere are some of them which according to tradition werecarried about by celebrated women of the Alcheringa,when women were allowed to see and own such of the women now alive are the reincarnations ofthese old Alcheringa people ; but only the older men. The Mock nf (I Inlwailiuk;!, llic Itadei- X CEREMONIES OF THE ARUNTA TRIBE 257 know this. The owner of the sacred Churinga is theonly person who has the right to perform any ceremonyassociated with it, though he will, at times, invite a friendto do so, if he wishes to pay him a cbmpliment or toreceive some favour from him. Everything of course isstrictly regulated by custom and precedent. Forexample, while a ceremony that belongs to the Panungaand Bukhara moiety of the tribe is being prepared, onlymembers of these two classes may be present and assist,except on -very rare occasions when it is desired to showspecial honour to some leading man of the othermoiety. Of the two words quabara undattha, the former, whichmeans a sacred ceremony, is very suggestive of the wordof which corrobboree is evidently the anglicised form inthe eastern side of the continent, but in the Arunta theequivalent of the latter word is altherta. Undatthameans birds down and indicates the
Size: 1809px × 1381px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1912
