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The Strelley Mob, as a group, is a social construct formed from
diverse groups. It is not a grouping based on traditional kin/
language criteria.
Nevertheless, it is not a mere spatial agglomeration. Preceding
chapters have shown the causal-meaningful bonds which have been
established,
і
Social structures developed by the Mob during the strikes have
resulted in corresponding changes in typifications. Those who were
•other’ in the old dispensation, contemporaries, now became
consociates.
1
As consociates they became eligible for ’therapy’, for a
conceptualisation that brings all tradition-oriented people within
an encompassing ’world’.
The Strelley Mob are deeply concerned about alcoholics from
Roebourne, a town about 200 miles from Strelley.
’Missionaries’
from Strelley visit the town and try to lift the people there from
their degradation, recalling the;
to their ’strong’ Law
(i.e. the
Roebourne Law).
There are those who are ’missionaries’ of the Law; like the
prophets, they travel around recalling the different groups to the
practice of the Law. Such typifications and roles clearly represent
adaptations of traditional typifications to meet new social circumstances.
Some typifications, however, Tepresentaccretionsrather than
adaptations.
In a world where typifications concerning marriage are still
institutionalized in a traditional way, young women seek to establish
additional typifications through participation in non-traditional
activities, for example in coming together to do typing courses.
In this situation they are not subject to older wives. Interaction
between the typif Ration of ’junior wife’ and the world of Strelley