Skin Names
The names that define one's place in the kinship system and determine marriage rules.
Skin names indicate which kinship category a person belongs to, determining who they can marry, how they relate to others, and their ceremonial responsibilities. These names are inherited and connect individuals to the cosmic order.
Your skin name tells everyone how to treat you and how you must treat them.
Skin name systems create ordered social universes of mutual obligation.
Oral Tradition
Written about in
- What Aboriginal tradition says about kinship and sharing
A skin name places you in a kinship category, which in turn sets marriage rules and ceremonial duties. The name is inherited, so your obligations arrive before you do.
- What Aboriginal tradition says about conflict with people close to you
A skin name is inherited and fixes your category: who you may marry, how you relate to others, which ceremonial duties fall to you. The name is neither chosen nor earned, and it runs in both directions — it tells everyone how to treat you and how you must treat them.