The name is absent

172

interaction with the people. There is thus a loose, but clear

way in which all members of staff are integrated into the community.
It is possible that where members remain with the group for a long
period they or their children may be invited to fuller

participation in membership of the group - a possibility
inconceivable with the staff at Jigalong according to Tonkinson
(1974:134).

The giving of kinship groupings is a means of contributing to
2
the good order of the group . Avoidance relations can thus be
observed by members, and more importantly, the stranger is integrated
• .                                     3

into a group having responsibilities towards him . Normally, the
belonging this confers does not carry the responsibility for the
white teachers to deal with disciplinary problems in the school
situation. The community takes responsibility for this. Nevertheless,
after five years of commitment, one teacher felt the community saw
him as part of the group, and expected him too, to exercise this
community role of taking responsibility for the discipline of
4
students .

The men made a request, in 1979, that a presence be maintained
by the teachers over the long vacation. It was explained that the
teachers needed to reintegrate themselves into their own families, an
explanation immediately understood. Nevertheless leave was staggered
to permit this presence. The presence of the white teachers and their
integration into the group is obviously seen as important to the
.    5

community .

ɪpor an account of the Jigalong mob, see Tonkinson, 1974. Tonkinson^,s
work will be referred to throughout as it is concerned with a group
adjacent to the Strelley Mob, many of them related to members of the
Mob. There is a great deal of interaction between the two locations.

2

Taped interview.

$Elkin states that ’’all persons with whom any person comes into
contact must be brought into the kinship system and therefore given
a place in a common life of economics and general behaviour" (Elkin, 1954:74).

4

Taped interview.

5

Taped interview.

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