The Subtle Joys of Limitation and Constraint: Jaru Kinship in the Southeast Kimberley

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the anthropological knowledge of Aboriginal lifeworlds through a study of Jaru kinship sociality. The Jaru primarily reside in Yaruman (Ringers Soak), a small community in the southeast Kimberley (Western Australia) numbering around 200 persons. The native tongue for the region is Nyininyjaru, a dialect of the Jaru language (Ngumbin-Yapa family) which is at present highly endangered. Labelling those who call Yaruman home "the Jaru" is potentially misleading since these locals are, in actuality, made up of a variety of different groups (e.g., Jaru, Warlpiri, Walmajarri, Ngardi, Gurindji). Although many of these groups came from different countries, the majority of Yaruman residents trace their connection to the community through the "station days", the period when they or their forebears were first incorporated into the Euro-Australian cultural matrix.

A central argument of the thesis is that the Jaru flow of social existence, and the country that sustains it, immerses this community in a specific mythopoeic (from the Greek meaning story shaping) structure. I propose that it is in this sense in which they constitute a "community" or social body. My elucidation of these mythopoeic structures is through an analysis of the two sisters (gujarra gabulu) dreaming complex, which is one realisation of a wider constellation of fire (warlu) dreamings. Furthermore, I show that amongst the Jaru the cycle of existence which incarnates the person, reproduces several intersecting group structures and revitalises the cosmos, is best understood in terms of a ceaseless renewability and radical immanence. The themes explored in this connection include conception processes; incarnation; Jaru embodiment; socialisation practices; group structures and membership; language; sexual dynamics; forms of residence; mobility and exchange.