Reciprocity in Aboriginal Society Principles of interconnectedness

Reciprocity in Aboriginal Society Principles of interconnectedness

Reciprocity: The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, esp. privileges granted by one country or organization to another.

 

Reciprocity is an underlying principle in aboriginal society. It is expressed through exchange and trade of food and tools, through social and family relationships, spiritual and totemic principles, and the political climate of aboriginal society. Central to reciprocity for aboriginal society is timelessness, spirit exists both now and before, creation is both a historical and current event, and the law is for both now and always, in short the interconnectedness of all things. Historically reciprosity has both unified aboriginal society and been a source of political, legal and cultural animosity and mystification within colonial australia.

 

Economic

         Economic reciprosity involves a relationship with the land, other groups, and ecological resources. As a largely nomadic people aboriginies have a land and food management system involving the controlled exploitation of natural resources. Through systematic migration, groups lived in a reciprocal arrangement with the land. Throughout the various seasons groups would migrate to areas, mine the natural resources, typically within a 5 km radius and then move on when the resource was either depleted or reached a point of prohibition, prohibition may have been in the form of spiritual ritual law or as a result of direction from elders, one such example was juvenile shellfish.

Hunting was also an activity that engendered reciprosity with co operative strategies of hunting employed such as using nets to catch a large number of prey, or manipulative strategies such as a large number of hunters encircling prey and trapping them. reciprocity was shown too in the eating of such prey such as the systematic and structured basis upon which parts of the animal would be eaten by whom based on kinship and reciprocity rules.

Whilst aboriginal people did not conduct systematic agriculture or farming according to anthropologists, some researchers believe that their adaptation of the use of fire was a form of firestick farming that assisted regeneration in a reciprocal arrangement, such as the burning of large sections of mallee to encourage the replenishment of lerp the next year. Woman were also known to actively replenish the environment          during the process of gathering, for example through the replanting of yams and seeds which in turn could be harvested the next time they were in the area.

            Trade of weapons, tools, medicine and food was also used to demonstrate reciprosity within the aboriginal economy, these items were exchanged for other items required. One example of this reciprosity is where groups near water sources would invite other groups to feast when a large mammal such as a whale was caught. Typically the other groups would be notified through smoke signals.

            One researcher noted that groups that were abundant in certain resources such as commonly found seeds and yams were at a distinct advantage when it came time to trade for meat and in effect were performing risk management in the case of drought. The forming of alliances may have been a strategic move to ensure reciprocal rights were protected in times of little.

 

Social

         Social reciprosity involved social obligations toward others within the group and to other groups. In aboriginal society each person has an identity a standing and a sense of belonging. within the society relatedness is a key concept and this relatedness allows each person to know how to act and behave toward each other person in the group. Within this system all have a sense of personal and group (kin) identity which protects and balances psychological, emotional, and physical survival in society. This kinship reciprosity extends to widows, orphans and even outsiders and ensures social equilibrium.

             Kinship reciprocity, affected trade, marriage, rituals, territory and cultural laws. It included such acts as gift giving, example by a man during initiation tools and other treasured items may be gifted to those who initiated him, upon bethrothal to a future wifes family, the man may gift the inlaws with treasured items, in this instance economic value was inconsequential, it was the act of giving that counted, and the reciprocity that strengthened social bonds. Food was also shared, beginning with those who have shared with the person in the past. cultural or moral law, such as avenging wrongdoing was also subject to reciprosity with certain persons being designated to punish according to kinship and status. so too kinship operated to act as a detterent with offenders, as close kin being at times held responsible for the offences. In Aboriginal society the group was seen as responsible for its members. reciprosity and social graces then operated as a system of checks and balances to maintain social equilibrium.

 

Spiritual

            Spiritual reciprosity involved a stewardship of the land, with those most connected to the land being the best stewards of the lands. Whilst anthropologists agree that aboriginal culture has no organized religion in terms that are understood by western ears, they do acknowledge that the aboriginal culture is built on a deep spirituality, where a unifying concept of the world is lived in which religion does not exist as an outside system or entity, instead it is encompassed in the person, place, language, stories, art and music.

Aboriginal culture also encompasses the law, which is not seen as separate from the moral or civil or natural law, infact there is a interconnectedness of all things. The law which encompasses spirituality ensures that each person knows his or her relationships and responsibilities for other people (their kin), for country including water sources, landforms and the species, and for their ongoing relationship with the ancestor spirits themselves.

 

Unlike other religions indigenous Australian spirituality embodies a reverence for life, while other religions make promises for example life after death, salvation, nirvana or similar aboriginal spirituality does not. Life is lived on lifes terms with suffering and joy, Living itself is an expression of deep spirituality and is celebrated.

**The totemic relationship requires that people must learn how to take responsibility for relationships with the species and the totemic site, or sacred site, in the landscape and connected to the totemic ancestor. The call for ‘Aboriginal land rights’ is often misunderstood by the settler colonial society whose main concern with land is as an economic resource, to produce a surplus and so gain capital.

            humans are parts of systems that are part of the balance. part of universal reciprocity. the people believe that all species have similar responsibilities toward their young the old, each other and society. everything is evidence of the great care and rsponsibility in the cosmos. There is no seperation between secular and spiritual law, the law governs sacred ritual and economic activity.  the law is seen as highly practical and the accumulation of hundreds of generations.

elders assume the role of dispute resolution, teaching, advising on marriage partners, and assume responsibility for sacred objects, spiritual matters and rituals.

 

Political

            Political reciprosity involved elements of tradition and respect. One political tool of reciprosity has been the use of fire to symbolise the movement of the people. fire allows others to know that people are moving across the land. it was a method of communication and you would know where the various families were. it allowed people to see the integrity of the landscape was being maintained. burning symbolised the continuity of tradition. It was a way of demonstrating a continuity with the old people or tradition.

     Reciprosity was shown in lighting fires, burning country was left for several days so the dead people can hunt first. the dead can also close up country as evidenced by thick vegetation. Burning the country also offers up a pleasant smell (like incense?) and was seen to please the gods and other humans.

            Burning was gift giving to the land, and when it was not burnt this was seen the as a dereliction of duty, overgrowth was a sign that the land was displeased however not everyone had the right to burn the country, nor was all country suited to burning. Where unsuitable country was burnt it was seen as a pollutant that did not honour the land. some land is burnt but not hunted on this is often the spiritual land or burial grounds of ancestors. this is a form of prohibition. Lighting fires is a way that people determine their place in the world and society. its a way of bringing the past into the future and preserving tradition.

            The aboriginal people saw themselves as stewards of the land not unlike other indigenous communities. Historically issues are epistemological, methodological, and systemic. Even when co-management policies are developed and implemented, the Indigenous intellectual property is often either marginalized or appropriated.

 

Because of the long history of outside agencies trying to assert power over tribal authority and tribal resources, tribal agencies are often reluctant to collaborate. The tribe, like the state, has to deal with the vagaries of the political climate at any given time. Historically this situation has caused the relationship between the tribe and the state, as well as that of the tribe and federal agencies, to run hot and cold over time

Lakota emphasis on the extended family (tiospaye) is a central principle of reservation economic life. Generosity is still valued highly today as it was in the traditional life-way of the Lakota (Pickering 2001). Sharing food resources among kin, whether purchased or harvested through hunting and gathering, is still an operative force for reservation residents.

            Government agencies are reluctant to recognize the legitimacy of Indigenous environmental practices or to include Indigenous perspectives in natural resource planning and management.