The Dyirbal , also called Jirrbal , are an Aboriginal Australian people living in northern Queensland, both one tribe (the Dyirbalŋan or 'Tully River blacks') and a group of related contiguous peoples included under that label as the Dyirbal tribes. They live on the upper Murray river of the Atherton Tableland . Their name is used as a generic term to refer specifically to one of eight groups, the others being Yidinji , Ngadyan , Mamu , Girramay , Wargamay , Waruŋu and Mbabaɽam .
31-414: Dyirbal may refer to: Dyirbal people , an ethnic group of Australia Dyirbal language , their language See also [ edit ] Gerbil (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Dyirbal . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
62-406: A fixed tribal-territorial entity which compromised the actual field data, the field data allowing for a far more fluid concept of the group. In 1936, Julian Steward reformulated Radcliffe Brown's highly restrictive definition, by proposing the idea of a band society at the hunter-gatherer level which could be patrilineal, matrilineal or a composite of both. Over time, 'band' has tended to replace
93-611: A lease from the Queensland Government, paying $ 2 per acre for forest, and $ 5 per acre for scrubland. Sacred sites like Yungigali , which in a Dreamtime legend was where a dog was transmogrified into a rock, were devastated. The Dyirbal consisted of several hordes , such as the Njirma , who were located at Ravenshoe . Each of the clans composing the Dyirbal had four sections, with a corresponding totem: The marriage rules regarding
124-404: A model for all Australian indigenous societies, the horde being defined as a group of parental families whose married males all belonged to the one patrilineal clan. 'Horde' from the outset bore stereotypical connotations of Australian Aboriginal societies as primitive, closed, rigid and simple, and came to be discarded not only for its implication of 'swarming savages' but also because it suggested
155-484: A small kin group , no larger than an extended family or clan . The general consensus of modern anthropology sees the average number of members of a social band at the simplest level of foraging societies with generally a maximum size of 30 to 50 people. 'Band' was one of a set of three terms employed by early modern ethnography to analyse aspects of hunter-gatherer foraging societies. The three were respectively 'horde,' 'band', and 'tribe'. The term 'horde', formed on
186-438: A standing army . Bands are distinguished from tribes in that tribes are generally larger, consisting of many families. Tribes have more social institutions, such as a chief , big man , or elders . Tribes are also more permanent than bands; a band can cease to exist if only a small group splits off or dies. Many tribes are subdivided into bands. On occasion hordes or bands with common backgrounds and interests could unite as
217-690: A tribal aggregate in order to wage war, as with the San , or they might convene for collective religious ceremonies, such as initiation rites or to feast together seasonally on an abundant resource as was common in Australian aboriginal societies. Among the Native Americans of the United States and the First Nations of Canada , some tribes are made up of official bands that live in specific locations, such as
248-562: The Dyirbalic branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family . It is one of several dialects, for Giramay , Mamu , Dyiru , Gulŋay , and Ngajan . It is an ergative language allowing words in the sentence in any order. It has four genders, classifying things as 'masculine' ( bayi ), 'feminine'( balan ), 'edible'(non-flesh foods) ( balam ) or 'neuter' ( bala ). In addition to this, a dozen different markers could be added to any noun, indicating
279-490: The Inuit , depending on the season, or member families can disperse to join other bands. Their power structure is generally egalitarian . The best hunters would have their abilities recognized, but such recognition did not lead to the assumption of authority, as pretensions to control others would be met by disobedience. Judgments determined by collective discussion among the elders were formulated in terms of custom, as opposed to
310-596: The Girramaygan tribe. Were it true it would means that they had conserved, for 200 years a clear memory of the day James Cook , sailing along the Cassowary Coast Region , set foot on the shore of the territory at what is now Cardwell, Queensland . The anecdote was collected by the specialist in Australian Aboriginal languages , Robert M. W. Dixon , from his informant Chloe Grant in 1963-4. Chloe Grant
341-494: The areas of Herberton southwards as far the headwaters of the Herbert River north of Cashmere . Their eastern boundary lay around Tully Falls . Ravenshoe , Millaa Millaa , and Woodleigh were also developed on Dyirbal land. A myth still current appears to explain the difference between the highland flora and that of the coastal zone: The tall upcountry forest members, trees like bull oak , water gum and black walnut had
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#1732851604608372-424: The basis of a Turkish/Tatar word úrdú (meaning 'camp'), was inducted from its use in the works of J. F. McLennan by Alfred William Howitt and Lorimer Fison in the mid-1880s to describe a geographically or locally defined division within a larger tribal aggregation, the latter being defined in terms of social divisions categorized in terms of descent. Their idea was then developed by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown , as
403-415: The earlier word 'horde' as more extensive comparative work on hunter-gatherer societies shows they are not classifiable as simply closed patrilineal groups, and better approached in terms of a notion of a flexible, non-exclusive social band, having bilateral relations for marriage and other purposes with similar groups in a circumscribed territory. In 1962, Les Hiatt invalidated Radcliffe-Brown's theory of
434-499: The early 20th century, many families were forcibly removed from their country and placed in the Aboriginal reserve that also served as a penal colony on Great Palm Island . The Dyirbal tribes did not engage in cannibalism in order just to eat people. It had a punitive retaliatory function, especially with regard to people judged to have violated native law. The last instance occurred in 1940, when Mick Bulbu (tribal name Burburra )
465-566: The end of the 19th century. They, with the related Girramaygans, eventually gathered together south of Tully in the Upper Murray , tolerated by settlers, one of whom is reported to have said in the 1920s that: 'There are no bad Aborigines left here: they've all been shot'. One pioneer was nicknamed scrub-itch ( gubarrngubarr ) because he adopted the habit of shooting at aborigines if he came across them dancing at their initiations corroborees. One Aboriginal woman who kept house with 'Scrub-itch'
496-405: The essence of North Queensland's traditional world. The first lines, repeated throughout the song, run: jígirrjigírr ngarrú banggány jígirrjigírr ngarrú banggány . Source: Tindale 1974 , pp. 167–168 Fabio Cavadini and his brother Alessandro Cavadini made a short film called We Stop Here (released 1977 ) about the Dyirbal people, in particular the removal of some of
527-500: The fighting ground"). This bird, unlike most, is classified as male, since they are believed to be the ghosts ( guwuy ) of mythical men, and its method of fluttering its tail was likened to the dance, in shake-a-leg style (legs fixed in a position while the knees wobble) of an initiated man at a corroboree . It also conveyed the manner of a spirit moving in the otherworld. For the anthropologist, in its interweaving of native bird lore, customs and bush, it seemed, hauntingly, to embody
558-437: The four sections were as follows: The first contact with whites goes back to 1848, at which time it has been estimated that each dialect group in the generic Djirbal tribal societies had around 500 members. Dixon estimates the total numbers at 5,000, which, within five decades of white settlement, indiscriminate shootings and disease, had the impact of leading to their decimation to something like 10% of their original strength by
589-597: The horde, demonstrating that the empirical evidence from Aboriginal societies contradicted Radcliffe-Brown's generalisations. The word "band" is also used in North America, for example among the indigenous peoples of the Great Basin . With African hunter-gatherers, for instance among the Hadza , the term "camp" tends to be used. Bands have a loose organization. They can split up (in spring/summer) or group (in winter camps), as
620-471: The idea of advancing eastwards to set down roots along the coast, but their endeavour was obstructed by the mangroves, which fashioned boomerangs from their roots and fought the arboreal invaders off so that the lowlands are clear of such species. In 1996 a large part of Girramay country, including sacred sites, was bulldozed, dynamited and fenced in by King Ranch , the American pastoral company, after it obtained
651-560: The law-governed and coercive agency of a specialized body, as occurred with the rise of the more complex societies that arose upon the establishment of agriculture. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown defined the horde as a fundamental unit of Australian social organizations according to the following five criteria: In his 1975 study, The Notion of the Tribe , Morton Fried defined bands as small, mobile, and fluid social formations with weak leadership that do not generate surpluses, pay taxes or support
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#1732851604608682-435: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dyirbal&oldid=1140914443 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Dyirbal people Dyirbal belongs to
713-495: The meaning of the burning object and smoke in the Europeans' mouths. Then Cook boiled a billy of tea and offered them a drink, which they rebuffed as just dirty water. At this point, Cook laid out a johnnycake on the coals of the fire he had lit, flipped it over and back till it was cooked, broke off pieces and offered to share eit with his hosts. The food thus prepared resembled their native walnut cakes ( wila ), but smelt stale and
744-501: The people to the penal colony on Palm Island, Queensland . I remembered the story of Captain Cook, who'd never been anywhere near Murray Upper. If this could be made up within two hundred years, what chance was there of an accurate account of the eruption being handed on for ten millennia? But there are important differences. The "Captain Cook" bit was made up by Chloe - no one else at Murray Upper would have approved; it had no tradition. She
775-567: The precise location, distance or direction of what is being referred to. It also used to have a special mother-in-law language , called Dyalŋuy (Jalnguy), switching to it from everyday language ( guwal ) whenever one's mother-in-law was present, or, in the case of a woman, one's father-in-law. They lived in the tropical rainforest much of which, apart from the coastal areas, was then cleared in order to facilitate banana plantations. Norman Tindale calculated that their tribal territory encompassed some 1,100 square miles (2,800 km ), taking in
806-448: The various bands of the Ojibwa tribe . Band societies historically were found throughout the world, in a variety of climates, but generally, as civilisations arose, were restricted to sparsely populated areas, tropical rainforests , tundras and deserts . With the spread of the modern nation-state around the globe there are few true band societies left. Some historical examples include
837-435: Was born of an Irish father and a Girramaygan mother in 1903, and died in 1974. According to her account, Cook, whom the natives took to be a spirit because of his white skin, beached his boat ( warrjan , literally a log vessel or raft). The encounter consisted of four distinct moments: at first, Cook and members of his crew took out pipes, lit them, and offered tobacco to the tribe. The sight left them perplexed as they mulled
868-434: Was killed by Jumbulu for numerous violations of tribal law, and had part of his body cut up and eaten. Dyirbal songs are divided into dancing and love songs. The dancing style was called gama . One recorded by Robert Dixon from Wille Kelly on the outskirts of Ravenshoe takes as its theme the willie wagtail (Dyirbal: jigirrjigirr , or in the mother-in-law register of the language, burulabarra "he who belongs to
899-433: Was likewise rejected. At this point, Cook them some boiled meat, beef, and, tasting it, they found it edible. Finally Cook readied his boat for departure, and the tribe was disconcerted: for them, the encounter was one with their ancestors from the other-world, who might offer them counsel. They pleaded with him to stay over: 'Father, father, come here, come back to us ( Nguma, nguma, gawu bani, banaga ), to no avail. In
930-501: Was ordered one day to fetch eggs from a scrub hen nest , and he then shot her dead as she dug into one of their breeding mounds. He had gotten bored by her attentions. It was a habit of whites among the Upper Murray tribes to take aboriginal concubines and, when they got pregnant, slaughter their own children. Either Dyirbal collective memory, or the ingenuity of one of its last speakers, Chloe Grant, tells of an incident conserved from
961-401: Was telling of the first white/black contact experience, and had called the first white man Captain Cook because the white people said he was the first. The Lakes story, however, was an established legend, known to several tribes. Band society A band society , sometimes called a camp , or in older usage, a horde , is the simplest form of human society . A band generally consists of