Note p. 117, under 7 — Chapter IV · [89] SEXUAL ASPECT OF MARRIAGE

[117] 7. There remains still to examine what form the relationship of children to parents assumes in the tribes where the Pirrauru relationship exists. Here we are quite well informed that the individual relation between the children of a woman and both their parents (their mother and her Tippa Malku husband) is fully recognized by the aborigines. It is true that Spencer and Gillen say that there is only a "closer tie" between the married couple and their children, and that the children acknowledge the Pirraurus of their parents as parents.[332] But this statement is very unsatisfactory; such a complicated question cannot be answered by a short phrase; for we are by no means aware what the words "closer tie" mean. As unsatisfactory is Howitt's remark, that owing to the promiscuous sexual intercourse, no woman can know if the children are the offspring of her husband or of the Pirraurus, and, therefore, the children must be considered as possessing group fathers and not individual fathers.[333] Apart from the objection that this applies merely to paternity and not to motherhood, which would remain at any rate individual, we must point to our subsequent investigations, which will show that the physiological question of actual procreation does not play a very important part in the determination of relationship. Probably it does not play in these tribes any part at all, as they (at least the Urabunna) seem not to have any knowledge of the actual physiological process of procreation. So we see that although both Howitt and Spencer and Gillen try to prove the existence of group relationship between the Pirraurus and their children, their conclusions appear to be ill founded in facts, and to be rather the fruits of speculation than of observation. Our suspicions are strengthened by the unsophisticated remark of Gason, to which we must ascribe much weight, as he knows the Dieri tribe better than any one else, and as he has no theory of his own to prove or to demolish. He says: "The offspring of the pirraoora [118] are affectionately looked after and recognized as if they were the natural offspring of the real husband and wife." Although this phrase is not very happily formulated, its meaning appears to be that the married couple recognize all the children of the woman and treat them with kindness and affection, without making any distinction. If, according to the views just mentioned, the children were accepted by all the men cohabiting with a given woman, i. e. by her husband and all the Pirraurus, the phrase quoted above would be obviously quite meaningless; for why should the offspring be recognized as if they were the husband's own children in order to be treated well? It may also be pointed out that the Dieri father is very affectionate to his children.[334] And in all the statements referring to this subject we clearly see that it is a question merely of the individual father and by no means of a group of fathers.