Pre-historic human societies (Grant Lee)

[Brad DeLong]

>Rob you have an excellent memory and unfortunately my copy of Tench 
>lacks an index, but I found the bit you referred to which if nothing 
>else is an excellent example of just how complex things get and just 
>how open they are to misinterpretation.
>
>Tench clearly believes that Benalong gets away with his behaviour 
>because he is a "big man" which may not be the case at all...
>
>Benalong emerges from a gathering of aboriginals and invites the 
>Govenor to witness an execution of a woman. None other than the 
>Botany Bay enemy's daughter he kidnapped sometime before December 
>1789 (point 4). She is at this point about 16 (which means that she 
>was 14-15 when Benalong took her) and sitting amongst Benalong's 
>people as she shy's away from his murderous entrance. He beats her 
>badly and afterwards proclaims his right to rape and kill her. She 
>is taken to the hospital where Benalong again tries to harm her (or 
>at least threatens to)...
>
>It is not difficult to reconstruct what had happened. Benalong had 
>punished his enemy's daughter (who probably was not a daughter but 
>her mother's brother) by taking her, "ravashing her" and keeping 
>her, but NOT EXCHANGING with them as in-laws - ie direct punishment 
>to that kin group for some previous trespass. This had probably gone 
>on peacefully enough (though she was not counted as wife - there 
>being no in-law exchange) until she contracted an arrangement with 
>Benalong's clan brother, Boladeree (Benalong would have stood, 
>because of the age difference as uncle to him - an authorative 
>figure). Suddenly Benalong's revenge was subverted and hence he went 
>to exact tribute from her broken bones and perhaps death...
>
>In this drama which is complex, it is easy to jump to the conclusion 
>that women were being used as chattels. However, tribal politics 
>like tribal punishments can only reside in the person, making it 
>balance required people to fulfil their obligations (even brutal 
>ones) - occassionally things would get out of kilter and the 
>violence of their solving is not to modern tastes, but despite all 
>this people played their roles consciously (like Abaroo)...
>The history of Kinship societies is if nothing else laced with 
>complexities and also underlying order and reason, the image of 
>oppressive, exploitative males reducing women to slavery in such 
>societies is appealing to the bourgeois mind, but misses the point 
>too much to be useful or true.

Kidnapping... rape... theats to murder... fierce beatings... broken bones...

God knows that the First Fleet is a serious competitor for the title 
of Worst Pre-Twentieth Century Social Formation, but why should one 
look at Abaroo as consciously playing her social role rather than as 
a victim of patriarchal despotism?