Gogodala - Kinship



Kin Groups and Descent. Descent is reckoned patrilineally and Gogodala society is composed of eight exogamous, totemic clans, each of which has its own ceremonial canoe marked with its totemic insignia. A person traditionally was allowed to eat the primary totems of his or her mother's clan and those of unrelated individuals, but not that of his or her own clan. Clans are divided into subclans but also united into moieties, each of which includes four clans.

Kinship Terminology. Wirz's account of Gogodala Kinship is incomplete, but it appears that there was a very strong tendency towards generational terms, with all women in the parental generation called by the same term and father's brother equated with mother's brother (but not father) ; sexes were distinguished, but otherwise one's own children were called by the same terms as one's brother's or sister's children; in one's own generation, elder and younger siblings were distinguished and it is likely that these terms were extended to cousins in a Hawaiian-type system.

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