234
were necessary for survival in the mode adopted by Strelley - namely
contiguity with mainstream society - if they were to maintain the
coherence of their ’world*.
Examples of adaptations made by the Strelley Mob, of which knowledge
’ * φ
is available to an outsider, are the practices of killing as a punish-
τ∙
ment. Deaths of Aboriginal people in the hard times after the strikes
and later through such causes as fighting after too much alcohol
became a source of great anxiety. Death as a tribal punishment
could no longer be countenanced. For ’tribal* crimes, other punishments
had to be devised, quite apart from the white man’s law, and over
and above punishment that might be meted out by white courts .
The practice of not inhabiting a dwelling after someone had
died has been modified to leaving the place empty for a short period.
Western-style habitation cannot be abandoned as easily as traditional
shelters.
The permanent living together in groups larger than the traditional
. . 2 , . .
kinship/language grouping represents an adaptation to a situation
produced when the people were dispossessed of their land.
ɪsoɪne courts interact to accept and maintain the ’tribal’ model of
Aboriginal groups. On occasion they do this with a lack of under-
standing and expect the community to punish its members for all crimes.
Crimes that the Mob see as white man’s crimes, should, the Mob believes,
be punished by white man’s law. There are no prescriptions of the
Law governing alcohol and its effects, for example the senseless
brawls that, in 1980fled to deaths on a number of occasions at Jigalong.
The Strelley people believed that deaths resulting in this way should
have received the same treatment in white law as white people would
receive. Tribal punishments should be reserved for crime⅛ specific
to matters contained within the Law.
⅞ee Berndt and Berodt (1981:25-106) for a full description of tribal
social organization. See also p.254 below.