The Concept of âMarrâ in Arnhem Land

MANKIND VOL. 10 No. 1 JUNE 1975

The Concept of ‘Marr‘ in Arnhem Land DONALD THOMSON

When Professor Thornson died in May 1970 he left severul manuscripts, among them this paper on ‘Marr’. The paper appears to have been written in a first draft shortly after the Second World War on the basis of fieldwork in Arnhem Land between 1935 and 1943. A copy was sent to Radcliffe-Brown for his comments and a letter received from him in June 1948. Among other things he said of the paper, ‘It is valuable from the point of view of scientific scholarship to have some of the more significant statements in the native language. But this does make the paper dificult to read for anyone who wants only to get the general idea. 1 suggest that you lay the paper aside for a time and reconsider it again later on.’ The advice was taken. The paper appears to have been redrafted some time later and a copy sent to Rodney Needham who was in correspondence with Thomson on the topic of kin classification in Cape York. In June 1963 Needham wrote back urging publication. By this time, however, Thomson’s interests had turned to work in the desert and he put the paper permanently aside.

The paper is o f interest for its detailed ethnography and as such is published for the benefit of regional specialists. Although Thomson’s name is best known for his economic and ecological studies in Arnhem Land, he was deeply interested in ritual life and brought to ethnography a concern for observing behaviour that was rare in his day. In preparing the paper for publication I have tnainly eliminated repetition and redundancy. The few additions I have made are indicated by square brackets.

I received permission to prepare the paper for publication from Mrs Thomson while organizing the cataloguing of Thomson’s ethnographic collec- tion on a grant from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Work on the paper has been made possible by an appointment as Senior Associate in Aboriginal and Oceanic Ethnology in the Department of History in the Faculty of Arts o f the University of Melbourne. I am most grateful for the help I have received from Mrs Thomson, Miss 1. Wiseman, Professor G. Dening and Mr A . West.

NICOLAS PETERSON

The idea of spiritual power which operates in all things and underlies all nature appears to be a general concept among primitive peoples. This power, which can be invoked and propitiated by the appropriale ritual, is

quite distinct from physical strength or personal prowess. It makes a man brave or strong-hearted, brings good or bad luck to a hunter, makes the eye clear and far-seeing, gives strength to the arm and accuracy to

VOL. 10 No. 1 MANKIND JUNE 1975

the spear and brings success or failure to an enterprise. It creates the need to enforce tabus and restrictions and at the same time furnishes the means of propitiating spirits and other supernatural beings that play so important a part in primitive society and underlie so much of its ritual life.

This idea of a supernatural force or power was first described by Bishop Codrington ( 189 1 ) working among Polynesians and it was he who introduced their term for it, mana, into the anthropological literature. Hocart, in a review of the concept ( 1914), shows well the difficulties and dangers of trying to find English equivalents for con- cepts which belong to a different psycho- logical pattern. Here, in order to illustrate the full significance of a concept similar to mana, held by the Aborigines of Arnhem Land, I shall use as far as is possible their own words, and replies to questions often asked of the same informants at long inter- vals.

The idea of a supernatural force or power sometimes associated with a spirit, a totemic ancestor or a personality and with anything that is strong, powerful or dangerous in a ritual sense, is strongly developed among the Aborigines generally.

Elsewhere (1933:510) I have shown that this concept is important among the Koko Ya’o of Cape York, north Queensland, where it is known as kunta kunta. In this region the term may mean hard, strong, ritually dangerous and, by extension from this last usage, incestuous. It is the force that makes the eating of human flesh dangerous, brings good or bad luck to an enterprise and makes the totemic centres and the sacred objects of the hero cult a source of danger to the uninitiated. However when approached with the appropriate ritual it may be a source of power or spiritual grace to the initiated, imparting special prowess and en- durance or bringing good luck to the hunter.

Hocart suggested that the concept of mana had ‘been carried all over the Pacific as part of that [spiritualistic] doctrine by a people whom we have to identify’ (1914:lOO). Of the people of Cape York it could be claimed that they have long been subjected to infil- trations of culture from the north, from a region actually bordering on the area in which the concept of mana, as defined by Hocart, flourished. However, a concept of

this kind seems to have been widespread in areas of northern Australia that had no such contacts. Northeast Arnhem Land which lies some 400-500 miles west of Cape York is one such area. Although it is true that this area has been subject to regular visits by Indonesians for several centuries it seems unlikely that they introduced the notion and more probable that it was indigenous to the area.

The concept of ‘marr’ In Arnhem Land the concept of a spiritual force very like mana is even more strongly developed than in Cape York and is a powerful influence underlying social organization and ceremonial life. The Kopapoingo- speaking people of northeastern Arnhem Land call it marr, a term known or used throughout eastern Arnhem Land.

Warner recognized the existence of this underlying force, and discussed the concept of mana at some length ( 1958: see index) but made no mention of the word marr. He incorrectly used the term dal as the equivalent of manu. Dal has the primary meaning of hard or strong in a physical or material sense, although it can be used for anything which is ritually strong or dangerous if it is qualified. When an Arnhem Land Aboriginal means to imply that something is strong because of endowment with spiritual power from the totemic ancestors, or as a result of the performance of a magical rite, he quali- fies dal with murryu-by virtue of marr.

One informant whom I questioned as to the meaning of marr replied without hesi- tation ‘power himself [i.e. itself]; no more beside wood, no more beside stone-power himself‘. Marr is power: it is not strength as of wood, it is not hardness as of stone, it is marr. It is possession of this power that may make a man or an object dal.

A clan’s totemic objects are called ranggu. They represent the shade or spirit, malli,l of the clan’s totemic ancestor or wangarr. Of the rangga an informant said, ‘rangga

1 Malli sometimes means shade, shadow or re- flection, but it also has a special sig ni ’fi cance as the nonmaterial manifestation or projection of anything. In certain magical practices it is the malli of the victim that is invoked by calling his name. I t IS the mnfli which is affected by the magical rite and which transmits the power of the rite, t o the physical being of the person by a kind ofXympathetic magic.

JUNE 1975 MANKIND VQL. 10 No. 1

ngaiyi marr’: the rangga has marr. Under certain conditions a man may invoke this marr. It may be a source of strength to fully initiated men who share in the solidarity of the clan group, but to others it is a source of danger. Even for a fully initiated man of another clan to see the rangga-the shade of the totemic ancestor-is in a sense regarded as ‘an act of violence’ to the group, an intrusion for which they have to pay. Every man to whom the rangga is unveiled at the termination of the ceremony associated with it, the ngarra,2 has the axillary sweat of an old, fully initiated member of the clan rubbed on his eyes. By his participation in the ngarra ceremony a young initiate incurs an obligation to make a ceremonial presentation of goods (gerri) and a large presentation of food. The food is dedicated ceremonially by invocation to the totemic ancestors and assumes the character of a sacrament; the invocations are the secret or ‘big names’ of the clan. The man of the yiritja moiety who calls yiritja moiety big names is called dalkarramirri and his counterpart in clans of the dun moiety is called djirrikaimirr. My informant remarked, ‘When we eat food dedicated to a rangga we eat only food. But really this signifies the marr belonging to it’, i.e. this is a sacrament in which the marr is believed to be trans- ferred to the food when the dalkarramirri or the djirrikaimirr calls the big names and invokes the marr of the rangga, thereby con- secrating it. Of this the natives say ‘marr ngaiyi ngorraka’, or marr it lies (there), that is to say, it possesses marr.

It is the work of the women, for which there is a mythical charter,3 to gather abundant vegetable food at the time of the ngarra

2 Ngarra is to be distinguished from ngarra. the personal pronoun ‘I’. The former is the name of the sacred ceremonial ground on which clan ceremonials are carried out and hence the name generally given to the ceremonies themselves. This ground usually takes the shape of the rangga itself. I t is deeply incised in loose sandy ground, sides raised and picked out, with a bough shelter at one end housing the rangga throughout the ceremony. Occasionally the rungga is brought out to be revealed. with the precautions described : the old men rubbhg sweat or smell (hunggun) on the initiates.

3 The precedent for the gathering of vegetable food by the women at the time of the ngarra ceremony was established by the Djanggauwo sisters,

ceremonies. They speak of this gathering of ceremonial food as marrangkuma, making or building up marr, i.e. to induce a sense of ritual well-being, a state of euphoria. This sentiment is a very real one and undoubtedly supplies the motive or drive which induces the women to gather the great quantities of food necessary for the support of any big gathering of people in this region.

A similar sentiment finds expression when a young child errs or a young man injures or kills anybody. The father will make a payment or presentation of possessions (gerri) , also called marrangkuma, to make good, really ‘to expiate by marr’. It is a ritual payment or presentation directed at molli- fying and appeasing the damaged sentiments of the injured person or group, with the object of averting vengeance.

Insight into the nature of marr, and in addition to the complexity of the behaviour in ceremonial life, was revealed by an incident which occurred during a ngarra ceremony held by the Marango clan. The Marango clan is of the dua moiety and ceremonially one of the most important in Arnhem Land, because of its association with two great culture heroes, the Djang- gauwo sisters. These two ancestral women are associated with the sun (wallir) and credited with originating much of the ceremonial life of eastern Arnhem Land.

A young man of the Wanguri clan, whose mother belonged to the Marango clan, was being initiated into the Marango sun totem ngarra. Shortly after the sun rangga had been revealed to this man, Badunga, he went hunting and returned with an unusual tally of four turtles. The old men attributed this success to marr from the rungga rather than to the man’s personal hunting prowess (tiambait).-’ They declared that he was in

4 Tiurnhait is the coveted name given to a man with great prowess in hunting elusive and difficult quarry such as dugong, turtle, certain of the big wallaroo, especially karritjurnbul (Osphranrer mnfi- lopinus) , native companion (Meguiornis rubi- cundu) , jabiru (Xenorhynchus asiatirus) and turkey bustard (Eupodoris austrdtis) . This quality of rjarnbait is believed to be due as much to the proper observances of tabus and the skilled use of appropriate mafjc, such as the ritual rubbmg on the face of dried human blood wrapped, or eating human flesh, as to actual personal hunting prowess. [From Thomson’s notes it appears that these latter

actices were confined to the peoples between twoF the J ~ N L 1 and Rlyth rivers]


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a special condition which they called kalnga kannomirri, literally skin ashes-with,5 referring to the fine white powdery dust that still lay on his body from the ceremonial ground. They held that the dust from the ngarra ground was imbued with marr: ‘ngaiyindja kalnga yarin ‘He (-dja expresses skin tabu emphasis) t jambait duyutirri ngoni tjambait tabu has-become that yulngo bili rangga man has (literally ‘finish’, rangga

used with verb to express past tense)

ngaiyi nama.’ he has seen.’ Freely translated: his body is tabu, he is tjambait; that man has seen the sacred sun totem.

The turtles were subjected to a rite known as dardaryuna. Dardaryuna means to beat the body with leaves that have been warmed over a ceremonial fire and is part of a rite carried out in many ceremonies connected with the removal of tabu and with the spirits of the deceased. In addition to this rite, all the women who ate the flesh of these turtles had to smear their bodies with red ochre. A similar act often marks the termination of a rite of separation. Apparently the turtle flesh would normally have been regarded as tabu to a11 women but the men said that they were hard pressed for meat and a con- cession was made with the observance of the appropriate ritual precautions. The old men added: ‘Yallalla ngata gurrupan ‘Later on food (they will) give tadoit.’ pay back-literally to close the mouth.’ Later the women will make a ceremonial presentation of food called marrankuma. This is not to the harpooner of the turtle but to the kaZngaa ranggamirri-the totemic group to whom the rangga belonged.

6 Kanno is really white wood ash, but it is applied to any fine white dust like wood-ash. Dis- coloured water is spoken of as kapti kannomirri- water ash-with.

6 Kalngu literally means skin but is used here in an idiomatic sense for the rangga owners, in this case the fully initiated members of the Marango clan.

In this way, with careful ritual precautions, any danger from the mmr of the sun rangga was averted and goodwill shown to those (i.e. the kalnga ranggamirri) who shared in the solidarity of the sun rangga ceremony.

In addition to these clan ngarru ceremonies there are a number of other ceremonies each of which belongs to all the clans of one or other of the moieties. One such ceremony is the Kunabibbi which belongs to the dua moiety. In this ceremony two sacred objects, yarmalandji, representing ancestral snakes, are made by members of the opposite moiety and only they may touch them during con- struction. For a dua man to do so at this time would be to invite a ritual visitation and punishment, because they have marr. However when the yarmalandji are completed and axillary sweat has been applied to the dua people by the yiritja moiety men, they are free to touch the two objects.

When I asked another informant ‘What is marr?’ he answered, ‘Marr, like him’, i.e. a feeling of affection or solidarity associated with the sacred object which is the inte- grating force in the ceremony. Another informant said ‘Marr-ngaiyi power’, marr is power, and then added, ‘Belong walk up long way, belong marri (fight) yindi (big) malla (group)-all about there-he go himself, ngarra wangkain-marr dal’. Freely translated: a man will travel a long way to fight, and alone meet a big group, and say to himself, ‘I am alone-my marr is powerful’. _.. .

It is not heart, it is not strength, it is not speed, it is not skill, it is not luck; there are words for each of these things. It is marr, the inherent spiritual force or power in those objects which emanates directly from the ancestral culture heroes who are associated with them.

Another example which illustrates the concept of marr also underlines how closely it is related to the Polynesian concept.

‘If (there is a) big sea, and two men swim, one says : mongona ngiirra tingamma!

The other says, KO! KO!

marr bandain! Him (he) come wanga. Some marr is dry!’ land.

perhaps I shall die! ngarra

Come!Come! I

7 Bandain literally means dry but here its use is idiomatic, with the meaning of sound, solid, safe, unt&ched or like the colloquial home a#nd dry

JUNE 1975 MANKIND VOL. 10 No. 1

yulngo yalnggi; some mardui‘in people (are) soft; sacred objects (are) cheap one too-him they look anyway.’ Freely rendered: two men are swimming in a rough sea, one says, ‘Perhaps I shall die’. But the other says, ‘Come, come, my marr is strong’. He swims on and reaches land. Some people are faint-hearted, just as some totems are held cheaply and are revealed easily .

The more powerful totems, such as the Marango sun totem, are linked with important legends and culture heroes and jealously guarded. The large presentations of goods and vegetable foods demanded from the initiates to whom they are revealed are not only to avert danger to them from marr but also to satisfy the custodians of the rangga. If the custodians (kong ranggumirri-a variant of kalnga ranggamirri) are dissatis- fied and dissension results, it is likely to have dangerous consequences for the initiate as well. Today, when the Aborigines move about more freely than in former times and therefore may be admitted to many ngarra ceremonies to which they would not have been previously, these obligations can be very onerous. Raiwalla, a man of the Mild- jingi clan, who over a period of years accompanied me everywhere in Arnhem Land, once appealed to me not to take him to a certain ngarru because of his inability to discharge the obligations he would incur and which would therefore leave him in a state of ritual danger from marr.

Further examples illustrate other aspects of the meaning of marr. Another informant replied, when asked the question, ‘What is marr?’: ‘Murr like him. Marr like djal.’ That is, ‘Marr like him. Murr like desiring, it is like strength (da l ) , yearning.’ So a man who thinks about a woman says: ‘ngarra marrtirri ngoroko mialktu.’ ‘I yearn for woman-for.’ ‘Murr is like you wishing for something- might be that something barrko (far away) like you wishing for that, well, that like you marr too.’ ‘This one murr-yindi (big) something big -big thing. ngarru marr ngone

rungganura turra ka- rangga-at, with, stays, remains, like I stay

I (my) marr there

with it.’ That is, ‘Marr is a big important thing. My marr is there with my rungga-as if I stayed there with it (as if it held me there).’ ‘Yakka numa, takaingama ‘I do not see (it) feel ngutudaltirris yokka nama marr, yulngo round-becomes not see marr, people - yakka namuyannu tukuingama -

do not see-only feel werripu yulngo - ngarra takaingama other people I feel mirri.’ with.’ ‘I do not see it, I feel it, it makes (me) strong. A man does not see it, he only feels it-I feel ( I am aware of) the marr of other people.’ My informant then added, ‘Marr, you people call power’. Of a white man whom they believe to be powerful or influ- ential, they say: ‘Marr ka-kamamirri!) - yindi.’ ‘Marr (he) is carrying great .’

(i.e. (he) has) He has great marr; in this sense, power, prestige (with the implication of a spiritual, almost a supernatural, background). Of the power of an administrator, as the King’s representative, an Arnhem Land native said: ‘wanga ngammatumma murryu.’ ‘The country makes good He administers the country by marr, i.e. because he is delegated with power or responsibility by the King.

The spiritual quality of marr is everywhere stressed, as in the spontaneous remark quoted above (see page 2) in which the informant distinguishes the power of marr from the toughness of wood, the hardness of stone. Marr is power, the power which gives influence, and prestige in the sense that it has a religious, totemic or supernatural implication, quite distinct from visible force. ‘That man been kill (has killed) plenty people- yakka marr, murrakarritj; that one

by marr.’

not marr, anger;

* Nguiu apparently means something like sound. smooth, having a complete. unbroken surface.

5) Suffix -Xu here indicates a continuous present tense. ‘I t may be used before as well as after the verb-pr it may sometimes be suffixed to a noun instead of the verb.


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we call marrakarritj ka yaikoro. anger and (it is) bad.

Him no more fight from marr. He (man) does not fight from marr. This one marr only for mardai‘in and thinking too much.’ And my informant added, ‘My marr rcally stays with my rangga’, with the sacred totem of the clan into which I was born.

When a man is warlike and kills many people-that is not marr, it is anger, i.e. aggressiveness. We call that savagery, and it is a bad thing. A man does not fight by marr. Marr belongs only to sacred things and thinking too much (things of the mind, spiritual things). My marr is rcally part of the spirit life of my clan.

Kaitpuyun marryu The idea of marr as a spiritual force underlies all ritual and ceremonial life in Arnhem Land, and finds expression most forcibly in the attitude towards totemic increase ceremonies which are carried out regularly at certain of the totem centres, notably at Mooroonga Island in the Crocodile Group.

Here there are a number of centres in most of which stones or rocks represent the malli wangarr-the shades or spirits of the totemic ancestor or culture hero. One of the important totem centres on this island is bara, the west wind, at which ‘increase’ rites are carried out, either to induce a state of well-being in the immediate area, or to visit ‘bad-luck‘ on the fishing activities of an enemy: ’Wanga ngammatam’ wattai‘, or ‘wangn ‘Country make good wind-by’, or ‘country yaitjamma’, for somebody else, bad friend, spoil for him-makkem dirty water, no more catchem fish.’

The mental or spiritual attitude with which the people approach the malli wangarr is of special interest. The people believe that this attitude which they call kaitpuyun will invoke, through the agency of marr, a response from the totemic ancestor. Their approach to the ancestor they express as kaitpuyun marryu, to solicit by marr.

The first time I heard the word kaitpuyun, my informant commented in reply to a question :

‘Kaitpuyun-like praise; you make him glad; marr ngammatamma - yakka

makes-good not kalnga - proper inside’, skin, i.e. -right inside’, superficially and then he added, ‘praise propitiate that one malli - makes him give me.’ Freely translated: kaitpuyun is like a prayer, you make him (the wangarr) glad, it is not a super- ficial feeling but deep inside and by propitiating him you compel his generosity.

I have since heard kaitpuyun used for the ‘pull’ exerted by a child separated from its father, which irresistibly draws him to return. The people conceive this force as the call of the child by marr which impels them to go to it, rather than as something within themselves.

This same concept occurs also in the ideas associated with the ceremonial capture of women. In certain groups of barpuro, the totemic complex shared by these people,lo a replica in miniature of the single fluke wooden Macassar anchor to which a line is attached is used to hook up a woman by the hair. If a woman who runs off with a man can convince the people that she was cap- tured in this way and compelled to follow the person who hooked the marrai‘irri in her hair, she is not punished by her husband because she is held to be compelled by the power of marr and therefore not a free agent. The power or pull of the marr is a supernatural or wangarr matter and is accepted as beyond the woman’s power to resist.

‘Marr’ as a source of danger It is marr which makes a dead body dangerous. A man who has earned the coveted title of tjambait because of his hunting skill will not touch a dead body nor will he even carry the bones of a deceased rela- tive. To do so would be to incur the risk of

‘“[This usage of harpuro is unclear. Shapiro (1967:353) equates the term with patrilineal clan, and Thomson in his book, Economic Sfructure trnd the Ceremonial Exchange Cycle in Arnhcnz Land (1949:61), defines hapuro as ‘a clan or an aggregation of clans linked by the possession of common totemic ancestors’. However, elsewhere in the same book he refers to an aggregation of clans by the term rnalla (1949:5 fn. 5). Here harpuro would appear to have the sense clan and thergroups of them to be m a h . ]

JUNE 1975 MANKIND VOL. 10 No. 1

a ritual visitation, bringing bad luck in weeks his appearance had changed. He was hunting. now fat, almost bloated, from good living

and lack of the hard regular exercise to said: which he was accustomed. He was very self-

conscious about the change in his appearance and the attention this attracted at ‘Tingganauwoi yulngo -burrpannu, Caledon Bay. After a few days he told me ‘Dead man stinking one that because of the difference in his appear-

ngorraka, yulto ngaiyitamma? ance the people stared at him; they stared lies (there) who will catch hold? so hard, he said, that their marr entered his nganawi ngarra barrarrirri body. If he did not give back this marr he I do not know who I am afraid would grow thin, his body would waste away

and he would become sick and die from the marrgo* bulo ‘rannu (== ‘garraniza) nzarr. He therefore had to make a ceremonial marr-of. Again me darrpungol’ will spear presentation of food to dispel it. wuturo marryu ngaiyi diango He gave the following explanation which kill marr-by he this is so vivid and graphic that I have quoted it morkoiyu.’ at length : dead man.’ ‘Ballany dubur ngma ngoni Freely translated: ‘A &ad body is lying there. Who will touch it? I do not know I am afraid of the marr. The marr of this something I give food body might kill me.’

The belief that marr may be a source of danger bringing sickness and death unless I am ‘

ritual precautions are taken is an important factor in social as well as ceremonial life. ngiirrana ngoi’ barriyun ngaiyi The extent to which these ritual precautions at me heart cracks, splits he occur was not at first apparent to me but , , + , i n ltoyanga. Yallala ngaiyi through close association with the people I long thinks about Later he became aware that rites to avert danger from marr were carried out constantIy. Frequently I was expected to take part in these rites to reriktun marrpoi ‘gonu

marrfrom That one it avert danger from marr and so that I would not lose my prowess in hunting. nakuna b ~ r r p a . ’ ~ ngaiyi marr

If a young child behaves in such a way like maggot. It (the) marr as to attract undue attention, the parents lukatu yul,zgona lauwuma n l a l l i . ~ ~ believe that it is in danger from marr, and to eats man (the) bites the spirit avert this danger they hasten to make a (of it). ceremonial presentation of food to the people who ‘noticed‘ the child and whose Mary, if the closely s imi l a r not dispelled, will make the child sick.

occurred when I was in Arnhem Land during the war. 1 was operating a small craft off the

a journey to Queensland for a ship refit by an Aboriginal, Raiwalla. When we left Am- hem Land this man was a slim, slightly built

most renowned fighting men in the area. But when we returned after an absence of several

11 In an aside he added, ‘dead man catch him along maw; he (i t) makes man sick’.

Of the marr in a dead body, an informant

(decomposed)

‘Like this (the) Custom is (lit., lies) if ballango12 ngzrra gurrupanna, ngata

ngaiyitu nama he looks

ngarrundia laiyuna

(from tabu)

(me).

sick

12 Hallu,lRo, bullanga is an anchor.

maggot.

The an 13 Burrpa, bad, rotten, putrid, is also used for

1 4 Note heie the usc OF rnalli as a manifestation of r ~ a r r receiving a visitation from the totemic maggot. Actual physical damage by the maggot is not implicd. The same ideas are involved in the reference to fire and laitjin (shipworm). The

envisaged as acting as a guardian of the sanctions of the groups of which it is a totem. Fire and laitjin fill corresponding roles in certain clans of the yiritju moiety. In each case these agents are wo&ing unseen; the maggot undermining the body. the shipworm working inside the log.

coast Of Arnhem Land and accompanied On

hunter, active and muscular, and one of the maggot belongs to dua moiety and is therefore

r 7 1


E 8 1 ”

Yallala ngaiyi reri Piama. Later he sick looks. Dua yulngo. Yiritja yulngo kuvta Dua people. Yiritja people fire marr ngaiyi. Rili wangurr marr he. Finish totemic ancestors nanngo. Werripu yulngo laitjin marr he. Other people teredo marr ngaiyi giln’gilnduro rzgariya.’ it will gnaw him.’

Translated: This is our custom. If I gave something-food-I am clear, clear of tabu, of ritual danger. He (they) gaze at me. My heart is split (by the power of marr, i.e. the spirit (malli) of marr) . He thinks about (me) for a long time.15 Later I (text is ambiguous, informant says ngaiyi-he) will become sick from marr. This marr eats a man just like a maggot-the spirit of it (here the ritual act or visitation is inferred). Later he sees (me) become sick. This is the case with people of dua moiety. For yiritja people it is the marr of fire-one of their own totems-that will burn them, while for others again malli laitjin (shipworm) will gnaw at him.

Explaining this, Raiwalla said: ‘He no look properly only him think, think all the time. My body, I mark that food. That food all same my body. I give it (food) along him (them) all right him hold me, rubb’in out from my body. Bunggan (sweat, really smell) there. Him like mnrr, nakkunna (like) rakki (rope, string) .’

After thinking for a minute, he added the following simile-‘If I tie myself up with rope-right up my leg (i.e. with a ligature), if you takkim out, him clear now. That one like marr belong him. Me slack again, me walk about.’ When it is removed he feels relief-he is slack, free of the restriction and walks easily again. So, when the ceremonial presentation is made, the marr leaves him, a state of euphoria is restored and actual danger removed.

In a simple phrase, Raiwalla expressed the relief he felt at the discharge of such obligation :

15 See page 6 where informant’s definition of nznrr includes ‘thinking too much’.

‘ngoil6 ngiirra ngamatirri nakuna Heart my good-becomes like kapu raipin koingarr kapu . ’ water fresh water: cold water ‘My heart (my vital being) feels good (with a sense of well-being), like water, like fresh, cold water.’

‘Marr’ in smred ‘mintji’ Another example of the belief in danger from murr is associated with the use of the finely executed totemic designs known as mintji. Each totemic group has its own mintjiI7 which represent the patterns on the body of their totemic ancestor. The mintji are extremely sacred and are jealously guarded. Any infringement of the use of these mintji by an individual or by another group is regarded as an act of violence against the owners. The designs are painted on the rnngga-(the mulli of the wangarr)- on the bodies of novices at the termination of the ngarra ceremonies, on the body immediately after death and on the skull itself before final disposal.

The use of the designs as a final rite is called kopa figammatamma, literally to make good the back of the neck, a kind of benediction.

Some account of the use of these designs has already been published (Thomson 1939:2) and the following passage is quoted from this account: whatever differences of opinion there may be in matters of detail, all share in the funda- mental belief that the mintji are derived directly from the totemic ancestor, and that the designs used to-day are the malli, . . . [spirit represen- tations] of the mintji that exist on the wangarr 1ikan.lB That is why the most sacred mintji in each group, the most carefully executed, the mintji that may make a man sick (vereri gurrupan marryu-‘make sick by marr’ (mana)-if he gazes too long upon it) is called Zikan-

16 Ngoi is not the equivalent of heart ( tor fork) in the anatomical sense. It is the living, vital, pulsating p a p of a man, very like the English word spirit.

17 In literal translation ininrji means simply maiks. It is also used specifically for these intrt- cate, conventionallzed and often elaborate sacred totemic designs.

18 LiXan, which in daily discourse means elbow, i9 the secret term used by initiated men for the skeleton of members of the totemic group. The m a 1 term for bone is ngarrakn, a non-secret word.

for Iikan is the ’big name’ for the wangarr ngarrakein literal translation, ‘the bones of the totemic ancestor’. This makes clear the significance of the use of likanboi mintji in a series of rites to all of which the term kopa ngammatamma is applied. All constitute a rite of aggregation, the affirmation of the bond between the members of the group and the malli wangarr.

No woman, youth or man uninitiated in the ceremonies of the clan to whom the likanboi mintji belong may look at the completed totemic design. So once a dead body has been painted it is covered with sheets of tea-tree bark (Meluleuca) until disposed of by burial or exposure on a funeral platform (djumba).

Every man to whom this likanboi mintji is revealed or who has seen the rangga has the fine design painted on his body soon afterwards and he in turn makes an obligatory payment of food to the old men of the clan. This practice is regarded both by the initiates and by members of the totemic group (the kong ranggamirri) as a necessary precaution, without which the man would become sick from the murr. It is carried out scrupulously whenever a rangga or its likm- boi mintji have been revealed to a stranger, even though a ngarra ceremony may not be in progress at the time. The revelation of the likanboi mintji under these circumstances is treated as an abbreviated form of initiation to the clan totem.

The painting of such a design on the body of a newly initiated man to whom it has just been revealed, generally as the culmination of weeks or months of participation in the ngarra, may mean a full day’s work for two skilled men, but in the evening, immediately after it has been completed, the design will be rubbed or smudged-buwuiyuk (obscured). The man then returns to camp, with design half-obliterated, but its function as a sacrament has been fulfilled.

Because the people believe that these mintji are the mulli of the actual patterns on the totemic ancestors they are afraid that if they fail to observe the necessary ritual precautions they will be injured sooner or later by a visitation of the marr from the rangga.

Today these sacred mintji are frequently painted or incised on smoking pipes (pama- tuka or lungin), which then have to be permanently sheathed in a wrapping of tea- tree bark, or with strips of calico carefully

bound around the barrel. There is justi- fication for the belief that this is not done without guile, since this renders the pipe- which otherwise would be passed around to all present-tabu and restricts its use to the small group of men fully initiated to the rangga whose mintji it bears.

The finest mintji are said to have a shine or iridescence called birryun which is the same term applied to scintillating light or the glistening of the sun. This light carries the marr of the runggu and is the agent of sickness. While I was working on mythology with a number of old men of the dua moiety, one of them got up and turned to the wall a drawing of tukororo, a rangga of the yiritja moiety, Mandjakai group, which was facing him. When I asked this old man what he was doing he replied: ‘ngiirra barrarri. Reri gurrupan ‘I am afraid. Sickness give

wangarryu barritjun. Malli wangarr wanarr spear. The shade totemic

ancestor wongorli marri bunan. Bitjan ngaiyi ghost anger arise. Like this he koyana. Na ngarra nako malli thinks. Why my what-for spirit tirr‘yun. Wungarryu malli arouse (as totemic by spirit from sleep). ancestor (with) barritjun.’ spear.’ When asked how it would kill him he replied at once, marryu, by marr. Freely rendered: I am afraid. The wangarr will send sickness and kill me. It will arouse the anger of the totemic ancestor. Like this, people think, ‘Why should he (we) arouse the malli?’ The spirit of the wangarr will kill us by marr.

The old men explained that the malli of the mintji (its marr) would appear on them in a dream and that they would become sick, for it is ‘bad luck’ to dream of these things. After this discussion I had to leave these men for a few minutes, and when I came back all the bark drawings, of which there were six, had been faced to the wall. ‘Man’ as a motive force in the ‘Kunabibbi‘

c ceremony Pefiodically the people hold Kunabibbi ceremonies. These ceremonies extend far

(Will)

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beyond the limits of the clan organization and are common to all members of the duu moiety.

A ceremony lasts for periods varying from a few weeks to several months and involves much hard work and the imposition of onerous tabus. For a long time I found it dficult to understand the motive force or drive that impelled the Aborigines to start these prolonged and elaborate ceremonies. When I looked for a reason I received the laconic reply, ‘finish that tjarnbin’, i.e. dispose of the tjurnbin which had accumulated. The meaning of this was made clear when I realized that the people were referring to disposing of the marr associated with the tjarnbin. If this is accumulated over a very long time, it becomes a source of danger not only to the man who carries the tjurnbin but also to the group, because the obligation to dispose of the marr in the tjurnbin is an obligation recognized and accepted by the whole group.

Tjovnbin is the term applied to certain kinds of animal fat. Fat generally is called tjukurr and considered a great delicacy in Arnhem Land. Animals with much fat are eagerly sought by hunters. This is stressed by the fact that the term tjukurr is applied not only to animal fat but to anything rich. The brilliant red breast feathers of a red- collared lorikeet ( Trichuglossus huemcrtodus rubritorquis) used by clans of the dua moiety in the making of their ranggu are also called tjukurr. But the fat of certain animals, generally those that are difficult to kill and which for this reason are greatly valued, e.g. the fat of buata (plain turkey or turkey bustard), wurrpun (emu), karritjumbal (red wallaroo) and especially k d a l p u r o (the female red wallaroo), is believed to have specid properties. This fat is collected, pre- served and carried in neat parcels of bark for use in the Kunubibbi and ngulmark ceremonies. It is this fat which carries the marr of the animals and is called tjarnbin.

It is also the practice to carry the bones, usually the long bones of certain animals, especially of the plain turkey, jabiru, native companion, emu and red wallaroo. In the case of the birds the wing, tail and downy body feathers used in making the fine head- dresses for the ceremonies are carried as well. These are also called tjarnbin.

When the season is good and these animals abundant the people live well and a state of well-being prevails. But at the same time a great deal of tjmnbin accumulates and the people believe they will fall sick if they carry it for a long period. They believe the malli of the animals will visit them in a dream and jump on them. ‘Too late he gee up’, my informant said, ‘feel sick half dead’, i.e. due to the build-up or accumulation of ritual power.

Of the KuncPbibbi, the same informant said, ‘That one block that sickness; no want to keep’im (it) long time’. For this reason they often send parcels of tjarnbin to friends in neighbouring groups-upon whom then devolves the obligation of organizing the Kunabibbi. This means that in good times a state of euphoria, or ritual well- being, prevails, which finds expression in the urge-backed by the compelling threat of the danger from the build-up of mmr-to commence the elaborate and exacting ceremonials of the K u d i b b i , which under other circumstances they would not have the incen- tive and the drive to carry out. This in its turn produces a state of euphoria due to having performed the obligatory act and so averted the danger from marr by propitiating the totemic ancestors.

From the foregoing it is evident that the concept of marr underlies much social and ceremonial life and is a most powerful influence on behaviour, providing the explanation for much that was hitherto difficult to understand or interpret.

REFERENCES CODRINGTON, R. H. 1891. The Melanesians: Studies

in their Anthropology and Folk-lore. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

HOCART, A. M. 1914. Mana. Man, 14, 97-101. SHAPIRO. W. 1967. Preliminary report on field

work in northeastern Arnhem- Land. American Anthropologist, 69, 353-5.

THOMSON, D. F. 1933. The hero cult, initiation and totemism on Cape York. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 63, 453-537.

. 1939. Two painted skulls from Arnhem Land, with notes on the totemic significance of the designs. Man, 39, 1-3.

-. 1949. Economic Structure und the Cere- monial Exchange Cycle in Arnhem Land. Mac- millan, Melbourne.

WARNER, W. L. 1958. A Black Civilization: a Social Study of an Australian Tribe. Harper and Brothers, Chicago.

The Concept of âMarrâ in Arnhem Land

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