Urabunna people

“ Each child, as in all tribes with female descent, is still of its mother's totem. [19] No churinga nanja cause an anomaly among the Urabunna, for the churinga nanja, and the belief about them, among the Urabunna do not exist.
The Urabunna myth, adapted to male descent, occurs in all the northern tribes, from the northern bounds of the Kaitish to the sea, which have no stone churinga nanja; and in all of them totems are exogamous, because they never occur in both phratries, being uninfluenced by the Arunta churinga belief. ”

“ Looked at from the point of view of the man his Piraungaru are a limited number of the women who stand in the relation of Nupa to him. There is no such thing as one man having the exclusive right to one woman; the elder brothers, or Nuthie, of the latter, in whose hands the matter lies, will give one man a preferential right, but at the same time they will give other men of the same group a secondary right to her. Individual marriage does not exist either in name or in practice in the Urabunna tribe. ”

“ One woman may, on different occasions, be allotted as Piraungaru to different men, one man to different women. Occasionally, though rarely, the regular husband (he who marries the wife by filthy "rites") resists the allotting of his wife to another man, and then "there is a fight."
The question is, does this Urabunna custom of Piraungaru (the existence of which in some tribes is not denied) represent a survival of a primary stage in which all men of a certain social and phratriac status were all alike husbands to all women of the corresponding status (group, or rather status, marriage) ”

“ A Specimen of African Civilization.—At the recent meeting of the British Association, Commander Cameron gave the following interesting particulars concerning the manners and customs of the people of Urua, a country in Central Africa bounded on the east by Lake Tanganyika, on the north by independent tribes in Manguema, on the west by Ulunda, and on the south by mountains south of Lake Bangueolo. The Uruans are probably the most civilized race in Central Africa. ”

“ The inhabitants of Unyoro form a very unpleasant contrast to those of Uganda, being dirty, mean-looking, and badly dressed. The country, too, is far inferior to Uganda, which might be made into a perpetually blooming garden; for, as the traveller leaves the equator and passes to the north, he finds that the rains gradually decrease, and that vegetation first becomes thin, then stunted, and lastly disappears altogether. The same structure of language prevails here as in Uganda, so that the people of Unyoro are called Wanyoro, and a single person is a M’yoro. ”

“ In about two hours we arrived at the very populous settlement of Urangi, consisting of several villages almost joining one another. I doubt whether the people of Urangi and Rubunga are cannibals, though we obtained proof sufficient that human life is not a subject of concern with them, and the necklaces of human teeth which they wore were by no means assuring—they provoked morbid ideas. ”

“ With them the division is within the generation. There is no class of women, who, with their descendants, are the normal spouses of a class of men, with their descendants. That being so, the Urabunna case can hardly throw light on the genesis of the four-class system. ”

“ Bunda, who was the brother of Bundagun, the mother of Therwain-wurumi, thus:—
This diagram may be compared with those given of the Urabunna and Dieri rules.
It was the old men in the Kaiabara who instructed the children in the marriage laws, about the boundaries of their country, and what they might eat. The boys stood in one row and the girls in another, and an old man would walk between them and ask the boys which of the girls they would choose for a wife. If they selected one of the forbidden class, they were abused ”

“ As the Abuna very seldom understands the language, he has no share of the government, but goes to the palace on days of ceremony, or when he has any favour to ask or complaint 318 to make. He is much fallen in esteem from what he was formerly, chiefly from his own little intrigues, his ignorance, avarice, and want of firmness. His greatest employment is in ordinations. A number of men and children present themselves at a distance, and there stand, from humility, not daring to approach him. ”

“ A girl was frequently promised when still a little child, and her future husband claimed her when she was grown up, a sister being exchanged for the woman he received as a wife. Marriage was permitted between the father's sister's child and the mother's brother's child, so that we find here a trace of the older Urabunna rule still remaining among the later changes accompanying paternal descent. But in the case of the Yuin tribes this was only if they belonged to intermarrying localities. ”

“ Having gathered some hot coals from the fire, the Mura-mura went on his wanderings to the south, making his song, which is sung by the Urabunna.
While he was travelling thus, his wife and daughters were out one day gathering nardoo, and the mother was mending the katu or breakwind, to make it stronger before winnowing the seed, when one of her children came to her, and said, "See, mother, the great whirlwind coming up. Quick! make the katu strong, so that the wind cannot blow it away." ”

“ Many of the rites practised on this occasion consist in systematically inflicting certain pains on the neophyte in order to modify his condition and to make him acquire the qualities characteristic of a man. Thus, among the Larakia, while the young men are in retreat in the forest, their godfathers and guardians give them violent blows at any instant, without warning and without cause. [1069] Among the Urabunna, at a certain time, the novice is stretched out on the ground, his face against the earth. All the men present beat him rudely ”

“ Later the two divisions were bisected each into a couple of pairs (classes) preventing marriage between father and daughter; and another resegmentation prohibited the unions of more distant relations. These systems, from the simplest division into two phratries, to the more complex with two “sub-classes” in each phratry, and the most elaborate of all with four sub-classes in each phratry, exist in various tribes. Environment and climate have nothing to do with the matter. The Urabunna and the Arunta live in the same climate and environment, and intermarry. ”

“ Each Arunta child, by that philosophy, has been in being since the Alcheringa: his mother of the moment only reproduces him, after 'preparation.' He is not a new thing; he is as old as the development of organic forms. This is the Arunta belief, and I must reckon it as not more primitive than the peculiar philosophy of reincarnation of ancestral spirits. Certainly such an elaborate philosophy manifestly cannot be primitive. It is, however, the philosophy of the tribes from the Urabunna, on Lake Eyre (with female descent of the totem) , to the most northerly tribes, with male descent. ”

“ The country around is flat, densely wooded, and the villages close together. The Uranga people were anxious for a landing and palaver, but the steamers pushed on to Bolombo, where a famine prevailed, and where the natives were peaceable and anxious to make blood-brotherhood. ”

“ He instituted an efficient tribal government, the like of which was not attained by succeeding generations in many millenniums. Never again, until the arrival of the Planetary Prince, was there such a high spiritual civilization on earth. These simple people had a real though primitive religion, but it was subsequently lost to their deteriorating descendants.
Although both Andon and Fonta had received Thought Adjusters, as had many of their descendants, it was not until the days of Onagar that the Adjusters and guardian seraphim came in great numbers to Urantia. ”

“ These things indeed suggest to one that it is possible that the Uranian spirit may lead to something like a general enthusiasm of Humanity, and that the Uranian people may be destined to form the advance guard of that great movement which will one day transform the common life by substituting the bond of personal affection and compassion for the monetary, legal and other external ties which now control and confine society. ”

“ Thus there is much property to be inherited, and where that is the case, and where the family has a house of its own, the desire of men to leave their goods and dwellings to their sons usually results in the reckoning of descent on the sword side. Yet, in this respect, the Melanesians of many regions are behind the naked, houseless Arunta, and other Australian tribes with male descent.. What influences caused these tribes to depart from the reckoning in the female line, still used among their equally destitute neighbours, the Urabunna, is a most difficult question ”

“ As Hammurabi ascribed the origin of his laws to the Sun-god, whom he represents upon his stele as reciting them to him, so Urukagina regards his reforms as due to the direct intervention of Ningirsu, his king, whose word it was he caused to dwell in the land; [47] and it was not with his people but with Ningirsu that he drew up the agreement to observe them. [48] Like Hammurabi, too, Urukagina boasts that he is the champion of the weak against the strong; and he tells us that in place of the servitude, which had existed in his kingdom, he established liberty. ”

“ Utumbara, as has been mentioned, was lately plundered, and Ruhembe, its chief, was slain, by the predatory Watuta. In Utumbara and Usambiro the people are chiefly the Wafyoma, a tribe of Wanyamwezi: they are a commercial race, like the Wajiji—trafficking in hoes and ivory; and their present Sultan, Mutawazi, has often been visited by the Arabs. Uyofu, governed by Mnyamurunda, is the northern boundary of Unyamwezi, after which the route enters the ill famed territory of Usui. ”

“ If you are so fortunate as to reach Utumbi, and don't wish to go farther south, inquire well about Ruanda, the M'Fumbiro mountains, if there is any copper in Ruanda, and whether or not the people of those countries receive Simbi (the cowrie shell) or any other articles of merchandise from the west coast, guarding well that no confusion is made with the trade of Karagwe, for Rumanika sends men to Utumbi ivory-hunting continually. "Remember well that the Wahuma are most likely Gallas ”

“ Of course there are poor, wretchedly poor, people in Ourga, who live, or, rather, manage to exist, in the most awful hovels. But still, during the whole month I spent in the sacred city, I was never once pestered by a beggar; indeed, I never saw one. Ourga, in this respect, offered an agreeable contrast to most of the Siberian towns I was in, where one could never leave one’s hotel or lodgings without finding quite a little crowd of them lying in wait. ”

“ They well knew what would happen to any teacher who assumed to lord it over his fellow teachers. There can be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all religious groups freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme will men become religious brothers and live together in religious peace on earth. ”

“ Tyuyumane, an influential induna and a relation of the King; Notalwa, the head of our witch doctors; Senkonya, another induna, and my father Ntelani. The latter was speaking:
“I fear lest the odour of gwai thus burned spread far into the stillness of the night, for none of us Amazulu use our gwai in such wise. Wherefore it will be known that white men are about.”
But that Ibuna answered roughly that he cared nothing if it reached the nostrils of Umzilikazi himself, save that he uttered the King’s name “Selekas,” so badly did that people speak with our tongue. ”

“ Though the planet was peopled by races physically fit, the tribes languished in the depths of savagery and moral stagnation.
Ten thousand years after the rebellion practically all the gains of the Prince's administration had been effaced; the races of the world were little better off than if this misguided Son had never come to Urantia. Only among the Nodites and the Amadonites was there persistence of the traditions of Dalamatia and the culture of the Planetary Prince. ”

“ To explain the way in which the type or physical features of people undergo great changes by interbreeding, Mtesa was instanced as having lost nearly every feature of his Mhuma blood, but the kings of Uganda having been produced, probably for several generations running, of Waganda mothers. This amused Kamrasi greatly, and induced me to inquire how his purity of blood was maintained—"Was the king of Unyoro chosen, as in Uganda, haphazard by the chief men—or did the eldest son sit by succession on the throne?" The reply was, "The brothers fought for it, and the best man gained the crown." ”

“ Ruwenga comprises the countries of Ruwenga and Mugihewa; Usige, the countries of Usumbura, Mukanigi, and Mugere. But all these countries are only part and parcel of Urundi, which comprises all that country bordering the lake from Mshala River, on the eastern shore, to Uvira, on the western, extending over ten days' journey direct north from the head of the lake, and one month in a northeastern direction to Murukuko, the capital of Mwezi, Sultan of all Urundi. Direct north of Urundi is Ruanda; also a very large country. ”

“ The postrebellion era on Urantia witnessed many unusual happenings. A great civilization—the culture of Dalamatia—was going to pieces. "The Nephilim (Nodites) were on earth in those days, and when these sons of the gods went in to the daughters of men and they bore to them, their children were the 'mighty men of old,' the 'men of renown.'" While hardly "sons of the gods," the staff and their early descendants were so regarded by the evolutionary mortals of those distant days; even their stature came to be magnified by tradition. ”