'Owner' and 'Managers': Ritual Cooperation and Mutual Dependence in the Maintenance of Rights to Land

Abstract

Introductory comments concern the duality of some Australian Aboriginal social organi‐zations, particularly with respect to ritual action and the enunciation of rights to land. Ethnographic data are presented from the north of Western Australia. Aborigines in this region own land which they inherit and members of a patri‐moiety realize their rights in land through subsequent ritual performances. However, members of their opposed patrimoiety who are also land owners play an indispensible role in any ritual action, so that members of both moieties are dependent upon one anothelr in the exercise of rights to land. Further data are provided which show the complex ritual and social relationship between four landowners in the region. It is concluded that the four men are mutually dependent in matters relating to their land. Consequently, Aborigines in the region stress the joint ownership and sharing of land, rather than their independence.