Australian tribes required knowing a stranger’s kinship relation before admitting him to camp

Evidence

At every moment of the life of a member of an Australian tribe his dealings with other individuals are regulated by the relationship in which he stands to them … Thus in any part of the continent when a stranger comes to camp the first thing to be done, before he can be admitted within the camp, is to determine his relationship to every man and woman in it, i.e., to determine what is the proper term of relationship for him to apply to each of them … — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 52

Categorization

• XREF: Precisely the opposite pole from Lofland/modern urban civil inattention; pairs with Simmel’s stranger and the categorical response urbanites use.