The Barungguan are an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people of the

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

Northern Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has bee ...

. The name is associated with three languages: Ganganda, Umpithamu and Morrobolam.

Name

The anthropologist

Donald Thomson Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist. he is known for his studies of and friendship with the Pintupi and Yolngu peoples, and for his intervention in the Caledon ...

classified them (speaking of them as the ''Yintjinga'') as one of what he called the Kawadji peoples.

Country

According to

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...

, writing in 1974, the Barungguan had about of tribal land, on the western side of

Princess Charlotte Bay Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of Far North Queensland at the base of Cape York Peninsula, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and it is a habitat ...

and extending northwards toward Cape Sidmouth. Their furthest northern limit appears to have been around the Rocky River, beyond which they rarely ventured.

Social organisation

The Barungguan were organized into

clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

the names of at least two of which are known: * ''Umbuigamu'' * ''Umbindhamu'' As with the neighbouring Walmbaria,

tooth avulsion Dental avulsion is the complete displacement of a tooth from its socket in alveolar bone owing to trauma, such as can be caused by a fall, road traffic accident, assault, sports, or occupational injury. Typically, a tooth is held in place by the ...

was practised on all members of either sex among the Barungguan, with either the right or left upper incisor extracted for ritual purposes.

Alternative names

* ''Baka'' (

Kaantju The Kaantyu people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland. They live in the area around the present-day town of Coen. Most of their traditional tribal land has been taken over for cattle stations. ''Ka ...

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

) * ''Banjigam'' ( Bakanambia exonym) * ''Barunguan'' (typo) * ''Ganganda'' * ''Jintjingga'' (native

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

for a site at the mouth of the Stewart River) * ''Njindingga'' * ''Umbindhamu'' * ''Umbuigamu'' * ''Yintjingga'' Source:

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * *