[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

24

ceremonial activities or inter-marriage. While migrations within the Western Desert were
frequent, such as when westerly groups moved to Ooldea in South Australia in the 1940s,
these are not necessary conditions for the difiusion of sections.

The present study focuses on rather recent diffusional patterns of the section system
in the Western Desert, those that I estimate to have occurred since approximately the mid
19'“ century. Let us turn first, however, to the geographical pattern of the diffusion of social
category systems prior to the timefiame considered here.

While section systems are used in many Australian regions eg. Bemdt Bemdt
1992:4611, the following discussion will describe only the systems of the western part of
Australia. In his 1996 paper, McConvell depicts a chronology that combines features of both
cultural diffusion and language expansion." Afier an initial proto-Pama-Nyungan break-up in
the Carpentaria region some 5-6000 years ago, proto-Nyungic moved southwards to Central
Australia and westwards in the direction of the Kimberleys, where further splits occurred
around 2-3000 years ago. What is of importance here is the origin of what McConvell calls
the western section system in the Kartn area of the South-West some 1-2000 years ago, which
spread northwards into the Pilbara area, on through the Kimberleys, and then eastwards
into the Northern Territory. From 1000 B.P., this western section system met another system
McConvell calls the northern section system, originating south of Darwin. The western
section system is believed to have spread southwards to Central Australia into the Arandic
region, while it also combined with the northem section system into a subsection system that
spread southwards as well, following the path of the initial western section system diffusion.
At the same time, the Western Desert language, which began spreading into the area about
2000 years ago, completed its expansion about 1000 BP, with intensified contacts between
Western Desert and Arandic languages see Map 3.



1000 has
u————

Western Desert .

Map 3: Simplified map of the diffusion of the western section system and of the
Western Desert language expansion, 2000 to 1000 years B.P.

1 Origin of the western section system in the South-West, its dilfusion northwards to the Pilbara and
Kimberley regions, then eastwards into the Northern Territory. and southwards into Arandic regions.

2 Western Desert Wati language expansion throughout the Western Desert.

“ See also McConvell 1985a, 1985b, 1990 and 1997.