ABSTRACT
Several writers mention dispersal and reunion according to seasonal conditions, visiting, and occasional joint participation of several communities in the same ceremony. The aborigines themselves saw these events as temporary separations from the main group or temporary amalgamations with other groups. Radcliffe-Brown stated that each horde had to obtain most of its foods and water from its own territory. Radcliffe-Brown wrote: "Acts of trespass against this exclusive right of a horde to its territory seem to have been very rare in the social life of the aborigines but it appears to have been generally held that anyone committing such a trespass could justifiably be killed". In view of the wide range of ecological variation in Australia, it seems unlikely that aboriginal local organization conformed to a single type, though now it is probably too late to establish with confidence the main varieties.
