Different Eras of Resistance Kinship Relationships to Aboriginal People - Coursework Example

Introduction: Kinship is a way of finding out relationship between the individuals in a society and now the kinship system is mostly used among the aboriginals and indigenous people in order to maintain order and structure in the society. This paper focuses on the different eras of resistance kinship relationships to Aboriginal people and gives explanation about how they have been different and what have been the social and political movements which have made them different. Aboriginals do not share the advantages of the advanced technologies and they do not participate in any of the functions of modern society. Aboriginals are more found in Australia, India, Africa etc. they are different in the patterns of dressing, adoring, intake of food and medicinal practices. They have been different in various eras like primitive society, agricultural society, industrial society and post modern society. Kinship: Kinship is the main objective of the sociologists since it is the basic factor in the organization of the society. They focus on the history of kinship irrespective of nation, state and geographical area. “Kinship systems establish relationships between individuals and groups on the model of biological relationships between parents and children, between siblings, and between marital partners.” (Kinship: a dictionary of sociology, 1998). But some theorists are on the view that the relationship between wife and husband through which they are related by marriage do not include in the category of kinship. They tell that this relationship is called as affinal relationship. But some other theorists say that the biological relationship is not necessary to determine kinship because some children have social father who takes the responsibility of them and therefore kinship must be established on account of social fathers. When we think about kinship the entire influential factors must be considered like the way of relationship, cultural and political background, economic status etc. There are two theories which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century and they are alliance theory and descent theory. Descent theory stresses that the role of kinship system is to understand political entities of the lineage group in the history. When descent theory gives more importance on the descent and succession, alliance theory emphasizes on the marriage. “Ernest L Schusky has given the following types of kinship.” (Joshi 1999, p.109). First type of kinship is consanguineal kinship which means the relation by blood like parent child relationship. Second type of kinship is affinal kinship and it means when a man marries more than one women, the children of wives of man has relation. This relation is called affinal relationship. The last type of kinship is pseudo kinship which means the relationship between the adopted children and their social fathers. They are considered as relatives and this relation is a legal one. Aborigines and kinship: The kinship system is characteristics of aboriginal people and this system could be observed throughout world. “It is a complex system that determines how people relate to each other and their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to one another, ceremonial business and land. The kinship system determines who marries who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and behavior patterns with other kin.” (Kinship and skin name, 2009). The indigenous and aborigines have a long history of nearly 5000 years and they are spread throughout world. They are more in number in Australia, India and Africa. The aborigine people are living where they have originated and they are not ready to go out of their bond of relation. They live together observing the rituals and patterns of their life which was handed over generation by generation. This is what exactly happened in Australia. When foreigners came to Australia the aborigines withdraw from the place and they started to settle in the forest which is far away from the invaders. Still now they live as if they are not sharing the benefits of the advanced world. They were not in support to receive the benefits of the changes benefited out of industrial revolution. They did not receive formal education and they did not follow the methods of modern medicine. But outside there occurred dramatic changes especially with the development of technology. The advanced technology has been used in every field and now it is impossible to think of a life where there is no technology. Even though there were attacks from the invaders and other natural crisis, they preserve their own culture. Since all of them belong to a particular tribe they share affinity between them. But one thing which is to be noticed here is that indigenous people are not bound to the legal system prevails in the country. As far as it is considered for Australian government, it has started to formulate a new strategy for the aborigines to ensure their participation in the government and to make sure better life for them sharing the advancement of the today’s world. So also the Indian government has designed special schemes for them to treat them equal to others and to bring them to the streams of the society. Most of the aborigine people’s society has an internal system of governing and this system is guided by kinship. Modern people are influenced by the modernist thoughts and their life pattern has been changed in accordance with that. The difference of aboriginals and modern man could be understood by way of their medical practices. The aboriginals use the medicinal plants while modern man uses evidence based medicine. They eat fruits, honey and grains which is the products of the forest and the meat of animals. Their rituals are quite different from today’s’ society and they adore natural power such as sun, stone and wind. The hunting and gathering Group: The hunting and gathering was the main source of work carried out in the primitive society. An important characteristic feature of the primitive society was the homogeneity in there social groups. It does not mean the society is free of conflicts. “The most primitive societies were ordered on the basis of kinship relation their organization was based on descent groups. These descent groups were exogamous and were related by a series of marriage exchanges.” (Kuper 1988). During the time of the primitive society there were no difference between the aborigine people and the civilized people. All the members are a part of a band. A band is a small group of people that consist of maximum fifty people. “In Primitive society there is a strongly marked tendency to merge the individual in the group to which he or she be longs. The result of this in relation to a kinship is a tendency to extend to all members of a group a certain type of behavior which has its origin in a relationship to one particular member of the group.” (Francis 2010). The colonial regime: The Maori development agenda: It is a movement for the indigenous people to make them free from the bondages of slavery. It has started to work in empowerment of indigenous people in many areas. The movement put forwarded claims about the rights of the indigenous people and characterized their political agenda. The movement aimed at developing the self esteem of the Maori people and to maintain them in their unique cultural heritage. The Maori movement was started as a result of the traumatizing impact of coloniliztion. “For Maori, development is based on the revitalization of kinship tradition of the distinctive strengths and resiliencies that flow from a strong working knowledge of one’s tribal identity” (Lawson-Te Aho & Liu 2010, p.127). During the time of colonial regime suicide rate were high. The Maori movement was initiated as a preventive mechanism of suicide during these times. The act of suicide was reported as psychological alienation of the individual from the society. Interventions in the group and individual levels: The colonizing power has extracted the rights of the indigenous aborigines to make use of their resources and the cultural development of them. As a group the Maori people felt the issue of allocation of resources within themselves. Another area that the Maori people struggled was in relation to the issue of decision making. Some times the indigenous members of the society will also support the colonial regime in order to possess the power and money. This will result to the weakening of kinship relation ship and the mutual obligation in their community. The colonization has resulted in the loss of many of the territories of indigenous people. It has also damaged millions of acres of land and had taken incalculable number of lives. The colonization has become the threats to the life of the indigenous people. The colonization was linked with the industrialization. The industrialization is backed up by the enlightenment also. The theory of industrialization has paved the way to distinguish people in to much class. The people enjoyed power acted as the controllers of the resources. The remaining people had made working for the sake of the high class people. The capitalist economy also supported the entire system. The colonization has played an effective role in making the difference of the indigenous people from the other people of the society. The enlightenment, renaissance and postmodernism: The fifteenth century becomes noticeable in its change because of the drastic reformation of thinking happened in the history. The thinking has made the shift from the religious oriented to the rational oriented. The enlightenment was a result of the protestant reformation movement. Till the fifteenth century the world was guided by the Christian religious dogmas. The divine right theory was an important example for the black footprint of this era. The protestant reformation has lead by Martin Luther criticized the so called catholic church and paved the way to the enlightenment. The enlightenment allowed the people to think freely according to their will. The notable drift of this movement is the shift from the traditional religious thinking to the scientific of rational thinking. The enlightenment lead to the renaissance. As a result of it the people started to gave importance to rational thinking. The concept of individual is result of all these movement. The people started to invent scientific inventions. The shift from utilization of human energy to the use of mechanical energy started. This resulted in the industrial revolution. The major part of the human society started to adopt shifting that happened in the history. But the indigenous aboriginal people had less contact with these changes and they remained unchanged. Respectively they were marginalized and set apart by other human populations. These aboriginal people lived in forest and remote areas of their inhabitants. They formed their own internal system of management and rule. They practiced their traditional labor and ruling system. The indigenous people maintained the system of kinship in order to form an internal structure of ruling. “The industrial revolution drew peoples from even the most remote parts of the world into a process that produced unprecedented quantities of material good, primarily for the benefit of the colonizing countries.” (Ferrante, J., 2007, p.216). Recent movements: Recently most of the world organization has realized the importance of indigenous people. Recently many organizations such as the UN and UNESCO etc., has started to work for the protection of the right of the indigenous people. The panmayan movement was carried out in many countries that initiated the support to change the life of the indigenous people. Through direct participation to this movement the empowerment of the indigenous people can be done easily. Another important change that is happening in the postmodern era that the indigenous people themselves started to come forward to fight for their empowerment. “Their existence as separate groups with special rights is now acknowledged by international bodies ranging from the United Nations, the European Community, and the Organization of American States to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and most international bilateral development agencies” now the indigenous people have realized that the power to protect themselves will not be provided to themselves. Rather they have to attain the right and protection for themselves. (Theodore & Macdonald 2009). Conclusion: Kinship system is more used in the aboriginal societies and the system is different in various eras such as primitive society, agricultural society, industrial society and postmodern society. The paper emphasizes on how the kinship system among abdominals have been different. Reference List Ferrante, J., 2007. Sociology: a global perspective. [Online] Cengage Learning, p.216. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=n_iOp9MfdRkC&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=the+indigenous+people+and+the+industrial+revolution&source=bl&ots=5DtIETZkNI&sig=-OcoAQL6ft8qzuv0WLfAHIpfm60&hl=en&ei=IMdCTP7dJsrIcZaTgMoP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=the%20indigenous%20people%20and%20the%20industrial%20revolution&f=false [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Francis, L.K., 2010. The effect of dominant kinship relationships on kin and non-kin behaviour: A hypothesis. [Online] Joster. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/668514.the [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Joshi, S. C., 1999. Sociology of migration and kinship. [Online] Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd, p.109. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-WzO-azFNkEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kinship+in+sociology&hl=en&ei=24tCTK6rOdLMcM-H9OcP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Kinship: a dictionary of sociology, 1998. [Online] Encyclopedia.com. Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-kinship.html [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Kinship and skin name, 2009. [Online] Central Land council. Available at: http://www.clc.org.au/People_Culture/kinship/kinship.html [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Kuper, A., 1988. The invention of primitive society: Transformation of an illusion. [Online] Routledge, p. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yg4okTJNE24C&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=kinship+relationship+primitive+society&ots=GtPVyP7O23&sig=MhsJOZC0aDqStNVawHkeI0qV_wk#v=onepage&q=kinship%20relationship%20primitive%20society&f=false [Accessed 13 July 2010]. Lawson-Te Aho, K & Liu, J. H., 2010. Indigenous suicide and colonization: The legacy of violence and the necessity of self-determination. [Online] International journal of Conflict and Violence, 4(1), p.127. Available at: http://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/viewFile/65/191 [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Theodore & Macdonald., 2009. Introduction: 25 years of the indigenous movement in the Americas and Australia. [Online Cultural Survival. Available at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/introduction-25-years-indigenous-movement-americas-and-australia [Accessed 19 July 2010]. Read More