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Land Succession and Fission in Nineteenth‐century Western Victoria: The Case of Knenknenwurrung
Author(s) -
Clark Ian D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the australian journal of anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1757-6547
pISSN - 1035-8811
DOI - 10.1111/j.1835-9310.2006.tb00044.x
Subject(s) - ecological succession , clan , fission , history , genealogy , fragmentation (computing) , ethnology , geography , ancient history , sociology , anthropology , ecology , biology , nuclear physics , physics , neutron
This article examines the evidence for land succession in western Victoria and considers the fission, fusion, and extinction of some clan groups at the time of contact with non‐Aboriginal people in the late 1830s and 1840s. A special study is made of the intriguing scraps of evidence surrounding Knenknenwurrung. This appears to be the case of a cluster of related clans fragmenting and being absorbed into contiguous language groups—some into Djadjawurrung, some Jardwadjali, and the majority absorbed into Djabwurrung. Exactly when this fragmentation and fission occurred is unclear, but certainly within the living memory of Aboriginal people in the early 1840s.