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The Warlpiri are a group of Indigenous Australians, many of whom speak the Warlpiri language. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered through their traditional land in Australia's Northern Territory, north and west of Alice Springs. About 3,000 still speak the Warlpiri language. The word "Warlpiri" has also been romanised as Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara and Wailbri.
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Language
The Warlpiri language is a member of the Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages. The name Yapa comes from the word for 'person'. The closest relative to Warlpiri is Warlmanpa. It has four main dialects, (1)Yuendumu Warlpiri, in the south-west; (2)Willowra Walpiri, in the central area, around the Lander River; (3)the northern dialect, Lajamanu Warlpiri; and (4) the eastern dialect of Wakirti Warlpiri, spoken on the Hanson River. Most Warlpiri-speakers are bilingual, English being their second language. Many also speak other native languages, such as Arrernte, Jaru, Western Desert Language, Warumungu. Indigenous sign language is also an important component of Warlpiri communication, as many of 600 distinct signs being used.
Kenneth Hale, an American linguist, mastered Warrlpiri and was adopted by the tribe, who knew him as Jabanungga. On returning to the United States, he raised his twin sons, Caleb and Ezra, in the Warrlpiri tongue, and Ezra delivered the eulogy at Hale's funeral in that language.
Country
Warlpiri country is located in the Tanami Desert, east of the NT-WA border, west of the Stuart Highway and Tennant Creek, and northwest of Alice Springs. The main communities in Warlpiri country are: Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Nyirrpi, and Willowra. Many Warlpiri live in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, and the smaller towns of Central Australia Their largest communities are at Lajamanu, Nyirrpi, Yuendumu, Alekarenge and Wirlyajarrayi/Willowra. Many also live in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine.
Warlpiri traditional territory was resource-poor to white eyes, and lay a considerable distance away from the main telegraph routes and highway infrastructure built by Europeans, a fact which meant they conserved unlike many tribes affected by these intrusive developments, relatively intact and flourishing, unlike the Anmatyerre, the Kaytetye, Warumungu, Warlmanpa, Mudbura and Djingili. One consequence has been that they have now expanded, moving into the lands of the Anmatyerre, as the latter's population dropped.
History of contact and study
His teacher A. P. Elkin sent Mervyn Meggitt to study the Warlpiri, and he stayed with them for over 18 months from 1953 to 1958. His research into their social system, Desert People: A Study of the Walbiri Aborigines of Australia, was published in 1962. In the mid 1970s, Diane Bell undertook detail work of the lives of Warlpiri women, summed up in her Daughters of the Dreaming (1982). Liam Campbell, in his Darby: One hundred years of life in a changing culture, (2006) recorded the autobiography of one Warlpiri man, Darby Jampijinpa Ross, a centenarian who lived through the profound changes affecting his people throughout the 12th century, including the death of family in the Coniston massacre. In 2000, the French anthropologist Françoise Dussart published a major study of the interplay of gender roles in the ritual maintenance and transmission by yampurru, holders of both sexes of the big secrets, regarding the tales and ceremonies concerning the Warrlpiri Dreaming (Jukurrpa).
Tradition
Warlpiri are famous for their tribal dances. A number of Warlpiri have toured England, Japan, and most recently Russia, performing their dances. Many indigenous artists, particularly in the Papunya Tula organization, are of Warlpiri descent.
Kinship
Warlpiris divide their relatives, and by extension the entire population, into eight named groups or subsections. These subsections are related to kinship, and determine one's family rights and obligations. The following is a brief sketch of how the subsection system relates to genealogy.
The subsections are divided into four semi-patrimoieties, each consisting of two subsections. One always belongs to the same semi-patrimoiety as one's father, but to the opposite subsection, so that men in a patriline will alternate between those two subsections.
The subsections are also divided into two matrimoieties, each consisting of four subsections. One always belongs to the same matrimoiety as one's mother, and women in a matriline will cycle through the four subsections of that matrimoiety.
The two subsections in a semi-patrimoiety always belong to opposite matrimoieties, and similarly, the four subsections of each matrimoiety are distributed among the four semi-patrimoieties. Each subsection is uniquely determined by which semi-patrimoiety and which matrimoiety it belongs to.
Female lines of descent in the two matrimoieties cycle through the semi-patrimoieties in opposite directions. The result is that one's mother's father's mother's father (MFMF) is of the same subection as oneself.
Siblings always belong to the same subsection.
It follows from these rules that one must choose one's spouse from a particular subsection, and traditional Warlpiri disapprove of marriages that break this constraint. The correct subsection to marry from is that of one's maternal grandfather (though of course one seeks a spouse closer to one's own age).
The subsection system underlies all of traditional Warlpiri society, determining how Warlpiris address and regard each other. Two members of the same subsection refer to each other as siblings, whether or not they actually have the same parent. Men in the same subsection as one's father (for example, one's father's male siblings) are called "father", and this practice is often followed even when Warlpiris speak English. In the same way, most of the kinship terms in the Warlpiri language actually refer to subsection (or classificatory) relationships, not to literal genetic relationships.
Traditionally, the first thing one Warlpiri wants to know about another is their subsection. Warlpiris often address each other by subsection name rather than by personal name, and incorporate their subsection name into their English one, usually as a middle name. When Warlpiris marry Europeans, they tend to extend the subsection system to their inlaws, starting with the assumption that the European spouse is of the correct subsection. Rather distant European relatives may find themselves classified as honorary uncles, nieces, grandparents, and so on. Warlpiris will then try to make sure that further marriages with related Europeans will adhere to the marriage constraint.
The traditional taboo against familiarity between a man and his mother-in-law extends automatically to any man and woman whose subsections are those of man and mother-in-law.
The subsection system automatically prevents incest between siblings and any relatives closer than cousins. Cousins that are children of classificatory siblings (who may, by definition, also happen to be true siblings) of the same sex are themselves classificatory siblings, and may not marry; but children of classificatory siblings of the opposite sex are of the appropriate subsections for marriage, and marriage between so-called cross cousins is actually encouraged in traditional society. It should be noted that where a couple are not merely classificatory cross-cousins but are true cross-cousins (i.e. their parents are actual siblings), marriage is generally frowned upon.
The eight subsections are interrelated in a pattern known in group theory as the order 8 dihedral group, D4.
If a Warlpirri has a second choice marriage, then any children they have take on two skin names: first, the skin name they would have adopted had the marriage been first choice; second, the skin name the second choice marriage implied (though I'm not sure if the name is adopted from the father of the child, or from the mother of the child). When asked what their skin name is, they often reply with the former, but may also additionally use the latter. (Observation made from a discussion with a young 'Japananga-Jupurulla'.)