The Dyirbal Kinship System
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18934306 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R M W Dixon (0000-0001-8294-5806, Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 245-268 |
| Publication date | 1989-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Oceania (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0029-8077 • E-ISSN: 1834-4461 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1989.tb02335.x |
| OpenAlex | W2031899712 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 10 |
The Dyirbal‐speaking people of North Queensland, Australia, have an unusual (and possibly unique) kinship system. Marriage takes place with someone not from ego's own generation but a generation above or below. A cross‐cousin through an elder‐sibling link at the parents' generation (i.e. mother's elder brother's child, father's elder sister's child) is a potential mother‐in‐law or father‐in‐law; ego may marry the child of such a relation. It follows from this that ego may also marry the child of a younger opposite‐sex sibling of a grandparent (e.g. mother's mother's younger brother's child). The system is quite symmetrical with regard to sex. Following exposition of the rules of the kinship system, the paper discusses how these are actually put into practice. Justification for the kin categories is also provided by linguistic observations on (i) dual forms of kin terms; (ii) the possible subjects of ‘verbs of begetting’; (iii) the kinship basis of the two first person dual pronouns; (iv) the rules for using the special deferential (or ‘mother‐in‐law’) speech style
Brother · Developmental psychology · Fictive kinship · Genealogy · Grandparent · Id, ego and super-ego · Kinship · Relation (database) · Sibling · Sister · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Anthropology · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Discourse and social interaction
Noun classes
Phonotactics
Australian languages and interdisciplinary approaches to the past
John Dallachy (1804–71)
Multimodal im/politeness
East Papuan Kinship Systems
Oenpelli Kunwinjku Kinship Terminologies and Marriage Practices
The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages
Five Versions of a Dyirbal Legend
Kin Terms and Context among the Gooniyandi
Language in the Constitution of Kinship
A changing language situation
The Evolution of Australian Kin Terminologies
The Construction of Continuity in Lesu
| Citations per year | 0.43 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1991 - 2023 (33) |
| Highly cited | No |