skin group

plural skin groups · alternative skin-group

1. An Australian Aborigine social division, which is inherited from the mother and which determines whom one can marry and how one relates to others.

   Our skin group tells us who we can marry and who we should not talk to.

   2006, Chris Wilson, Macmillan Educational Company, Trisha Sertori, Jane Pelusey, Michael Pelusey, Chris Wilson, Huddleston Bruce, & Marilyn Huddleston, Life in Indigenous Australian Communities, →ISBN, page 13

   2 more examples

   A person is born into their skin group and thus, in addition to a personal name, shares with other relatives who are similarly classified, a skin name.

   2002, Diane Bell, Daughters of the Dreaming, →ISBN, page 18

   Until very recently the penalties for marrying someone from another skin group were very harsh, and included death.

   2004, Claire Smith, Country, Kin and Culture, →ISBN, page 9