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58-564: Diyari is classified as one of the Karnic languages . Though earlier described in Ethnologue as extinct, and later "nearly extinct", Peter Austin has attested that the language still has fluent native speakers and hundreds of Diyari who retain some knowledge of it. Lutheran missionaries developed an orthography to transcribe the language, together with a German-Diyari dictionary, as early as 1893 and, as later modified by Johann Flierl , this

116-560: A council of the chiefs was assembled to consider in what way they might be averted, the result of their deliberations being a petition to the Muramura (Good Spirit), in answer to which he ordered that the tribe should be divided into branches, and distinguished one from another by different names, after objects animate and inanimate, such as dogs, mice, emu, rain, iguana, and so forth; the members of any such branch not to intermarry, but with permission for one branch to mingle with another. Thus,

174-620: A determination which recognised Diyari rights to 47,000 square kilometres (18,000 sq mi) of land along Cooper Creek, with boundaries extending to part of the Strzelecki Regional Reserve and the Lake Eyre National Park . Diyari language Diyari ( / ˈ d iː j ɑː r i / ) or Dieri ( / ˈ d ɪər i / ) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Diyari people in

232-504: A divorce was completed). In 1916 Brown became a director of education in Tonga . In 1921 he moved to Cape Town to become professor of social anthropology, founding the School of African Life. Further university appointments were University of Cape Town (1921–25), University of Sydney (1925–31) and University of Chicago (1931–37). Among his most prominent students during his years at

290-459: A large group of young people who identify themselves as Dieri and are keen to learn about the language and their culture, history and heritage. In its latest (22nd) edition in 2019, Ethnologue shows the population of speakers as 5 (2016 census), ethnic population 600, and status as "8b (Nearly extinct)". It further notes that the DAC started preparing Dieri language material for schools in 2009 and that

348-541: A large number of Christian works into the language. Reuther translated the New Testament into Diyari, as well as compiling a lengthy manuscript on the language, culture, mythology and history of the Diyari people, including a 4-volume dictionary. The Diyari people were taught to read and write at the mission school, and written records show that the language was used in letters from about 1900 until about 1960. Dieri

406-439: A manufacturer's clerk, and his wife Hannah (née Radcliffe). He later changed his last name, by deed poll , to Radcliffe-Brown, Radcliffe being his mother's maiden name. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham , and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1905; M.A., 1909), graduating with first-class honours in the moral sciences tripos. At Trinity College, he was elected Anthony Wilkin student in 1906 and 1909. While still

464-434: A notion he called ' coadaptation ', deriving from the biological term. Functional analysis, then, was just the attempt to explain stability by discovering how practices fit together to sustain that stability; the 'function' of practice was just its role in sustaining the overall social structure, insofar as there was a stable social structure (Radcliffe-Brown 1957). While Lévi-Strauss (1958) claimed that social structure and

522-481: A revised version was published as a grammar of the language in 1981. Reuther's manuscript was translated from German into English by Rev. P. Scherer in 1981. Austin continued his research on Diyari based on fieldwork he had done in the 1970s, publishing translated texts, notes on literacy, language classification and vocabulary. By 1980, the language was still in use among a small number of families, but most people under 50 had learnt English as their first language. By

580-408: A rigorous battery of concepts to frame ethnography. Durkheim, inspired Radcliffe-Brown throughout the entirety of his profession in anthropology. One of Radcliffe-Brown's goals was to "transform anthropology into a 'real' science based on the natural sciences." He demonstrated these ideologies in his book published in 1957, A Natural Science of Society . In 1906, one of Alfred's primary focuses in

638-438: A speech taboo prevailed. Dhirari (extinct late 20th century) was a dialect of Diyari. Austin identified two variants of Dhirari, Southern and Northern, differing only in vocabulary. Pilatapa (extinct by the 1960s) may also have been a dialect; data is poor. Diyari was traditionally spoken by the Diyari (or Dieri) people in the far north of South Australia , to the east of Lake Eyre. The mostly dry Cooper Creek and

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696-548: A student, he earned the nickname "Anarchy Brown" for his close interest in the writings of the anarcho-communist and scientist Peter Kropotkin . He studied psychology under W. H. R. Rivers who, with A. C. Haddon , led him toward social anthropology. Under the latter's influence, he travelled to the Andaman Islands (1906–1908) and Western Australia (1910–1912, with biologist and writer E. L. Grant Watson and Australian writer Daisy Bates ) to conduct fieldwork into

754-565: A written language. The first research by professional linguists started with American linguist Kenneth L. Hale 's recording of a short text in 1960 from a native speaker called Johannes, who was living at the time in Alice Springs . Research on the language started in earnest in the 1970s, using tape recordings and notes, by Luise Hercus , phonetician David Trefry and in particular Peter K. Austin. Austin wrote his PhD thesis on Diyari in 1978, using tapes recorded by Hercus, of which

812-401: Is a project under way to teach it in schools. The Diyari had a highly developed sign language . This was first noticed by Alfred William Howitt in 1891, who first mistook them for defiant or command gestures until he then realised that they formed part of an integral system of hand signs, of which he registered 65. One of their functions was to allow women to communicate during mourning, when

870-540: Is based on observations, what anthropologists see and hear about individual peoples. Radcliffe-Brown also argued that the study of social structure encompassed culture, therefore there is no need for a separate field dedicated to culture. A major view in the study of tribal societies had been that all societies follow a unilineal path (' evolutionism '), and that therefore 'primitive' societies could be understood as earlier stages along that path; conversely, 'modern' societies contained vestiges of older forms. Another view

928-430: Is considered by some to be the founder of structural functionalism . Structural Functionalism, which can be traced back to sociologist Émile Durkheim, is the social theory that assumes societal institution (e.g. Government, school systems, family structures,etc.) play a role in its success. Through the two different group dynamics;   Mechanical solidarity a “sentimental attraction of social units or groups that perform

986-417: Is in complementary distribution with both the trill [r] and the flap [ɾ] . Austin (1981) analysed the trill [r] as being the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/ , with the flap /ɾ/ being a separate phoneme . R. M. W. Dixon (2002) suggests that [ɾ] could be considered the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/ , so then /r/ would be a separate phoneme. Having /d/ realized as [ɾ] would parallel

1044-482: Is therefore a relatively "literate" language, with a consistent orthography . During this period Diyari became a lingua franca , widely used by the missionaries and helpers as well as by Aboriginal people. After the mission closed in 1914, most of the Diyari people relocated to towns and stations, outside traditional territory, leading to loss of the language as they lived amongst people speaking English and other Aboriginal languages, although it continued to be used as

1102-525: The Andaman Islands and Western Australia , which became the basis of his later books. He held academic appointments at universities in Cape Town , Sydney , Chicago , and Oxford , and sought to use model the field of anthopology after the natural sciences . Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was born Alfred Reginald Brown in Sparkbrook , Birmingham , England, the second son of Alfred Brown (d.1886),

1160-560: The Birdsville Track run through this very arid region. The whole area was occupied by the Diyari and many place names and mythological sites still exist. Current Dieri speakers live in Marree , Port Augusta , Broken Hill , and Adelaide . In 1867 German Lutheran pastors established a Christian mission station and sheep station at Lake Killalpaninna on Cooper Creek, known as Killalpaninna Mission or Bethesda Mission, which

1218-503: The Kuyani and Adnyamathanha . The environment was harsh, and foraging for vegetables was a staple since the kangaroo was absent from their terrain and the emu , their favourite food, quite rare. Native rats , snakes and lizards were, however, abundant. Lorimer Fison (1880): After the creation, brothers, sisters, and others of the closest kin, intermarried promiscuously, until — the evil effects of these alliances becoming manifest —

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1276-776: The Marree area. In 2012 the Federal Court of Australia officially awarded an area of land centred on the Cooper Creek region to the DAC, and another claim was recognised soon afterwards. In 2008 Greg Wilson began work with the Dieri Resources Development Group, based in Port Augusta , to prepare materials for teaching the language in school, with the support of the ILS (Indigenous Language Support program). A series of workshops resulted in

1334-683: The Melbourne -based Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD). In 2015, Austin wrote that Ethnologue ' s assertion in its 16th edition that Diyari was extinct was incorrect, and on the contrary, ... there are today a number of people living today in South Australia and western New South Wales who grew up speaking Diyari as their first language and whose knowledge and linguistic ability ranges from fluent native speaker to semi-speaker to partial speaker. There are hundreds of people who know at least some words and expressions in Diyari... and

1392-516: The Mobile Language Team (MLT) worked with the DAC to complete a Dieri language learner's guide in 2017. Several of the nasals and laterals are allophonically prestopped . The voiced alveolar stop [d] may have trilled release [dʳ] depending on dialect. Peter Austin (1988) suggests that this is due to Yandruwanhdha influence. The voiced retroflex stop /ɖ/ often becomes a tap [ɽ] between vowels. The stop [d]~[dʳ]

1450-570: The University of Chicago were Sol Tax and Fred Eggan . While at the University of Sydney, he was a cultivator of the arts and championed Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , as the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. Fearing that Depression may lead to financial collapse Radcliffe-Brown departed in 1931 to fill a chair at the University of Chicago, leaving his successors to solicit Rockefeller grants and government funds to save

1508-591: The 1990s, most of his consultants on the language had died, and Austin assumed that the language was close to extinction. However, social and political activities among Aboriginal people in the 1990s relating to claims under the Native Title Act 1993 had a big impact on the language. The incorporation of a group of Diyari people who lodged a land claim, the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation (DAC), in 2001 had 600 identified members, many in

1566-562: The Concept of Function in Social Science, 181). Nonetheless, Radcliffe-Brown vehemently denied being a functionalist, and carefully distinguished his concept of function from that of Malinowski, who openly advocated functionalism. While Malinowski's functionalism claimed that social practices could be directly explained by their ability to satisfy basic biological needs, Radcliffe-Brown rejected this as baseless. Instead, influenced by

1624-631: The Cooper Creek. The most easterly edge was constituted by Lake Hope , and the western limits lay some 80 miles west of Lake Hope. Their neighbouring tribes were the Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka , respectively to their east and north-east and, to the north, the Ngameni . To their north-west were the Wangganguru , to their west the Thirrari and Arabana, while on the southern fringes were

1682-596: The DAC Group. In the same year, he published a draft dictionary in 2013, and revised his 1981 grammar, making it free online. Willsden Primary School in Port Augusta introduced a Diyari language programme, with members of the Warren family (who had long been collaborators with Austin) involved. An online blog was started and has proven a popular resource. Language revitalisation projects continue, with some input from

1740-646: The Dieri were divided into two tribal groups, the Ku'na:ri around Cooper Creek and the Pandu in proximity of Lake Hope. Their kinship system was first studied by Howitt, who took it as exemplifying a form of one of the most socially backward of Australian tribes. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown analysed the Diyari kinship structure as a variant of the Arrernte system . Their moieties were Matharri and Kararrhu, in accordance with

1798-637: The Sydney Department. After these various far-flung appointments, he returned to England in 1937 to take up an appointment to the first chair in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1937. He held this post until his retirement in 1946. Survived by his daughter, he died in London in 1955 at the age of 74. While Radcliffe-Brown founded the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford, according to Rodney Needham his absence from

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1856-455: The basis of this research, he contributed extensively to the anthropological ideas on kinship, and criticised Lévi-Strauss 's Alliance theory . He also produced structural analyses of myths, including on the basis of the concept of binary distinctions and dialectical opposition, an idea later echoed by Lévi-Strauss . According to Radcliffe-Brown, the function of religion is to install a sense of dependence on fear and other emotional strain on

1914-426: The far north of South Australia , to the east of Lake Eyre . It was studied by German Lutheran missionaries who translated Christian works into the language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so that it developed an extensive written form. Only a few fluent speakers of Diyari remained by the early 21st century, but a dictionary and grammar of the language was produced by linguist Peter K. Austin , and there

1972-504: The field [Andaman Islands] was kinship and familial relations of Western Australians. Within these communities, he uncovered distinct social organizations that proved adaptation and fusion were essential in keeping the system functioning. The term “Structural Functionalism” would later be used to describe the idea that “the life of a society may be viewed as an active system of functionally consistent, interdependent elements.” Radcliffe-Brown has often been associated with functionalism , and

2030-488: The field. Haddon led him towards the comparative method in specific societies in anthropology, classification and morphology, inductive generalization, and to sympathize with Durkheim's approaches. Rivers inspired Radcliffe in psychology to approach anthropology with many different qualities of mind. He has been described as "the classic to Bronisław Malinowski 's romantic". Radcliffe-Brown brought French sociology (namely Émile Durkheim ) to British anthropology, constructing

2088-432: The general divisions among speakers of Thura-Yura languages in South Australia. Gason thought the Diyari extremely treacherous, nourished by suspicion from infancy. At the same time, he said they displayed exemplary hospitality, revered the aged, and adored their children. Any stranger who passed through their camp, was provided with food. Infanticide was widespread, by Gason's calculation, affecting some 30% of births and

2146-501: The human body into a society. Therefore, a major function of religion is to affirm and strengthen sentiments necessary for a society to continue. This idea was developed in Radcliffe-Browns book, The Adaman Islanders (Free Press 1963). Radcliffe-Brown was often criticised for failing to consider the effect of historical changes in the societies he studied, in particular changes brought about by colonialism. Nevertheless, he

2204-460: The institute during the war years prevented his theories and approach from having a major influence on Oxford anthropology. Radcliffe-Brown was influenced by his tutor, W. W. Rouse Ball , to study a moral science (psychology, philosophical subjects, and economics) instead of a natural science which he originally wanted to pick. During his time at Cambridge, professors Haddon and Rivers encouraged him to study anthropology and discover his interests in

2262-495: The maintenance of a society stating, “human beings are connected by a complex network of social relations. I use the term “social structure” to denote this network of actually existing relations”. (On Social Structure, 190)  He also clarifies that “We may define it as a condition in which all parts of the system work together with a sufficient degree of harmony or internal consistency, i.e., without producing persistent conflicts which can neither be resolved nor regulated”.  (On

2320-512: The possible exception of linguistics , were arbitrary; once our knowledge of society is sufficient, he argued, we will be able to form subdisciplines of anthropology centred around relatively isolated parts of the social structure. But without extensive scientific knowledge, it is impossible to know where these boundaries should be drawn. Radcliffe-Brown carried out extensive fieldwork in the Andaman Islands, Australia, and elsewhere. On

2378-574: The process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead , he claimed that the fundamental units of anthropology were processes of human life and interaction. Because these are by definition characterized by constant flux, what calls for explanation is the occurrence of stability. Why Radcliffe-Brown asked, would some patterns of social practices repeat themselves and even seem to become fixed? He reasoned that this would at least require that other practices must not conflict with them too much; and that in some cases, it may be that practices grow to support each other,

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2436-599: The production of a CD-ROM called Dieri Yawarra and a print resource, "for community and school language revitalisation and second language learning". This was followed by a second, more ambitious, project in 2009, called Ngayana Dieri Yawarra Yathayilha! ("Let us all speak the Dieri language now!") to develop language lessons for schools at all levels (still a work in progress as of 2015 ). In early 2013, Austin spent some months in Australia and travelled to Port Augusta to run language revitalisation workshops with Wilson and

2494-436: The realization of /ɖ/ as [ɽ] , and having /r/ rather than /ɾ/ as a phoneme matches most other Australian languages. Diyari has three different morphosyntactic alignments : Alfred Radcliffe-Brown Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown , FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown ; 1881–1955) was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop the theory of structural functionalism . He conducted fieldwork in

2552-406: The same or similar functions”  & Organic solidarity , which is relies on “interdependence based on differentiated functions and specialization”, a society creates a web that allows a cohesive existence of heterogenous groups. Alfred built off of these principles believing that studying social structures like kinship ties would be evidence enough for understanding how social structures affect

2610-460: The social relations that are its constituents are theoretical constructions used to model social life, Radcliffe-Brown only half-agreed In addition to identifying abstract relationships between social structures, Radcliffe-Brown argued for the importance of the notion of a 'total social structure', which is the sum total of social relations in a given social unit of analysis during a given period. The identification of 'functions' of social practices

2668-446: The son of a dog might not marry the daughter of a dog, but either might form an alliance with a mouse, rat, or other family. This custom is still observed, and the first question asked of a stranger is, "What murdoo?", i.e., "Of what family are you?". The Diyari creation story imagined Mooramoora , the good spirit, making small black lizards at first, and delighted with them, they decided should hold sway over all other created beings. It

2726-557: The sun. Lutheran missionaries established the Bethesda or Killalpaninna Mission among the Dieri in 1866. The first ethnographic reports regarding the Diyari were written by a police trooper, Samuel Gason (1845–1897) in 1874. He estimated the numbers of Aborigines in the Cooper Creek area at 1000-1200, of which the Diyari were the most prominent, with an estimated 230 members. By the end of WW2, they were estimated to number around 60. The Diyari foundational myths stated that originally man

2784-437: The untestable nature of historical reconstructions. Instead, he argued for the use of the comparative method to find regularities in human societies and thereby build up a genuinely scientific knowledge of social life. To that end, Radcliffe-Brown argued for a 'natural science of society'. He claimed that there was an independent role for social anthropology here, separate from psychology, though not in conflict with it. This

2842-857: The workings of the societies there. His time in the Andaman Islands and Western Australia were the basis of his later books The Andaman Islanders (1922) and The Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1930). At the 1914 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Melbourne , Bates accused him of plagiarising her work, based on an unpublished manuscript she had sent him for comment. Before departing for Western Australia, Brown married Winifred Marie Lyon in Cambridge ; they had one daughter, Mary Cynthia Lyon Radcliffe. The couple became estranged by about 1926. They may have divorced in 1938 (sources disagree on whether

2900-441: Was because psychology was to be the study of individual mental processes, while social anthropology was to study processes of interaction between people (social relations). Thus he argued for a principled ontological distinction between psychology and social anthropology, in the same way as one might try to make a principled distinction between physics and biology. Moreover, he claimed that existing social scientific disciplines, with

2958-536: Was by remodulating this variety of lizard, cutting off the tail, and using his forefinger to create a nose, that man was created, and then divided into male and female. Mooramoora then had the Moon create all creatures. Man could not run down the fleet, tasty emu, and the deity was asked to make heat so that it would tire and allow men to catch up and trap it. Men were asked to perform certain ceremonies, considered obscene by Gason, and after their compliance, Mooramoora created

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3016-488: Was closed by the South Australian government in 1914. The missionaries studied the language and used it, including preaching in Dieri and teaching it in the mission school from 1868. The earliest written records of the language date from 1870, by early missionaries Koch and Homann. Johann Georg Reuther and Carl Strehlow created dictionaries and other teaching aids in Diyari between 1895 and 1906, and translated

3074-530: Was incestuously promiscuous, fathers, mothers, sons and daughter all marrying each other. To overcome the strife that ensued, the Elders petitioned the Mooramoora creator for a solution, which consisted in splitting the tribe into distinct branches, each designated by an animal or natural name, and then disallow marriage among members of the same branch. Before the white intrusion on their lands made its impact,

3132-619: Was performed by the mother. They were very attached to their camp dingos , treating them as they would a human. The Dieri Aboriginal Corporation (DAC) incorporated in 2001 and by 2014 had 600 members living in Marree , Lyndhurst , Port Augusta , Whyalla and in Broken Hill in New South Wales. The group purchased the Marree Station property surrounding Marree in 2008. In May 2012 The Federal Court of Australia made

3190-446: Was supposed to be relative to this total social structure. Lévi-Strauss saw social structure as a model. Within his research, Radcliffe-Brown focused on so-called "primitive" societies. He believed kinship played a large role in these societies, and that patrilineages, clans, tribes and units all relate to kinship rules in society and are essential in political organization. Radcliffe-Brown claimed that all research on social structure

3248-570: Was taught to many Diyari-speakers, who corresponded in the language from the 1880s down to the 1960s. Diyari was the first Aboriginal language for which a complete translation of the New Testament was made. The Diyari also had a highly developed sign language , which was first noticed by Alfred William Howitt in 1891, who first mistook them for defiant or command gestures until he realised that they formed part of an integral system of hand signs, of which he registered 65. One of their functions

3306-429: Was that social practices tend to develop only once, and that therefore commonalities and differences between societies could be explained by a historical reconstruction of the interaction between societies (' diffusionism '). According to both of these views, the proper way to explain differences between tribal societies and modern ones was historical reconstruction. Radcliffe-Brown rejected both of these views because of

3364-534: Was to allow women to communicate during mourning, when a speech taboo prevailed. The traditional lands of the Diyari were estimated by Norman Tindale to have encompassed roughly 8,400 square miles (22,000 km), and lay in the delta of the Barcoo River ( Cooper Creek ) to the east of Lake Eyre . The southern boundary was marked by Mount Freeling , its most northern reach by the Pirigundi Lake, on

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