ABSTRACT
In comparative studies of primitive peoples the Australian aborigines have long held a special place and, perhaps for this very reason, a number of misconceptions concerning their society and culture have entered the anthropological literature. Anthropologists and others, writing in general terms about the aborigines, commonly emphasize one or other of two points. In particular there has been a failure to appreciate the significance of demographic differences within and among these small-scale societies and their importance in conditioning marriage arrangements. The presence of moieties among some aborigines was taken to be a survival of that period. But even as the speculation that moieties, etc., were 'marriage classes' was congealing into received dogma, several anthropologists engaged in intensive field research among aborigines were discovering data that led them to express serious doubts about the proposition. A. P. Elkin, guided by his usual meticulous concern for the facts of field work, was one of the first to suggest the need for a reassessment.
