Australian Aboriginal Kinship - The Subsection or 'skin Name' System - Systems With Eight Skin Groups (subsection Systems) - Lardil

Lardil

The Lardil of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria have eight skin groups, shown here with some of their totems:

Male skin group	Totems	May marry only female skin group	Children will be
Ngarrijbalangi	Rainbird, shooting star, egret	Burrarangi	Bangariny
Bangariny	Brown shark, turtle	Yakimarr	Ngarrijbalangi
Buranyi	Crane, salt water, sleeping turtle	Kangal	Balyarriny
Balyarriny	Black tiger shark, sea turtle	Kamarrangi	Buranyi
Burrarangi	Lightning, rough sea, black dingo	Ngarrijbalangi	Kamarrangi
Yakimarr	Seagull, barramundi, grey shark	Bangariny	Kangal
Kangal	Barramundi, grey shark	Buranyi	Yakimarr
Kamarrangi	Rock, pelican, brolga, red dingo	Balyarriny	Burrarangi

Each Lardil person belongs to one of these groups. Their paternal grandfather's skin group determines their own; so a Balyarriny man or woman will have a Balyarriny grandfather. A Ngarrijbalangi man may marry only a Burrarangi woman, a Bangariny a Yakimarr, a Buranyi a Kangal and a Balyarriny a Kamarrangi, and vice versa for each.

Once a person's skin group is known, their relationship to any other Lardil can be determined. A Ngarrijbalangi is a 'father' to a Bangariny, a 'father-in-law' to a Yakimarr and a 'son' to another Bangariny, either in a social sense or purely through linearship.

The mechanics of the Lardil skin system means that generations of males cycle back and forth between two skins. Ngarrijbalangi is father to Bangariny and Bangariny is father to Ngarrijbalangi and similarly for the three other sets of skins. Generations of women, however, cycle through four skins before arriving back at the starting point. This means that a woman has the same skin name as her (matrilineal) great-great-grandmother.