 | James George Frazer - 1905 - 336 pages
...later times : if we had to coin a word for such a government of elders we might call it a gerontocracy? The elders who in Australia thus meet and direct the...of their tribe appear to be for the most part the headmen of their respective totem groups. As you probably know, the Australian aborigines are divided... | |
 | 498 pages
...father and high-priest of the family. The heads of the families formed the government, and the king was selected from them, and was always an old man....thought that a ruling 1 Newell, AAAS vol. vI, p. 605. 1 Turner, p. 268. 3 Bird, Ausland, vol. xxxvn, p. 418. • Wilkes, vol. v, p. 13. * Frazer, EJI.K.... | |
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So far as their tribes can be said to have a political constitution, it is a democrary, or rather an oligarchy of old and influential men, who meet in council, and decide on all measures of importance, to the practical exclusion of the younger men. Their... 