Jingili people

The Jingili or Jingulu are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

Language

Jingulu is classified as belonging to the Mirndi family of non Pama–Nyungan languages. An early word-list was compiled by F. A. Gillen.^[1] Following in the wake of pioneering work by Neil Chadwick in the 1970s, Robert Pensalfini wrote out a grammar of Jingulu on the basis of fieldwork with its last known fluent speakers.^[2]

Country

Norman Tindale estimated the range of Jingili lands at approximately 5,900 square miles (15,000 km²). The southern frontier was around the Renner Springs area about Mount Grayling, extending northwards to Newcastle Waters and also took in the area of the Ashburton Range. To the east they encompassed Cattle Creek south of Wave Hill and Ucharonidge. Their western extension ran as far as the 25 miles from Lake Woods.^[3][a]

Social organization

R. H. Mathews constructed an early scheme to set forth the marriage divisions of the Jingili.^[4]

Divisions of the Jingili tribe^[5]

Phratry	Section of Parents		Section of Offspring
	Husband	Wife	Son	Daughter
A	Jimmitcha Chunainjah Chemarainjah Tampachina	Nungalleeinja Nalainjah Naraleeinjah Nungareeinjah	Taraleeinjah Tungareeinjah Chulainjah Chungaleeinjah	Naraleeinjah Nungareeinjah Nalainjah Nungalleeinja
B	Chungaleeinjah Chulainjah Tungareeinjah Taraleeinjah	Nameeinjah Nanainjah Nabajinah Nemarainjah	Tampachina Chemarainjah Chunainjah Jimmitcha	Nabajinah Nemarainjah Nanainjah Nameeinjah

Some eight years later he reconfigured the data in the following terms:-

Divisions of the Jingili tribe^[6]

Phratry	Section of Parents		Section of Offspring
	Wife	Husband	Offspring
Cycle A	Chungalee Chula Taralee Tungaree	Chimitcha Chuna Chemara Champina	Taralee Tanagree Chula Chingaree
Cycle B	Chimicha Chuna Champina Chimara	Chungalee Chula Tangaree Taralee	Champina Chemara Chuna Chimitcha

History of contact

According to oral tradition, the Jingili originally migrated from the Great Western Desert.^[3]

Alternative names

• Chingalee, Chingalli
• Djingili, Djingali, Djinggili
• Leechunguloo
• T(h)ingalie
• Tjingale, Tchingalee
• Tjingilli, Tjingali, Tjingalli
• Tjingilu

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 236

Some words

• mowija. (pieces of crystallized quartz used, according to Ravenscroft, to kill an enemy by creeping up to him when the latter slept, and placing the stones on his chest.)^[7]

Notes

1. "The Chinaglee tribe occupy a large area of country of which Charlotte Waters (error for Newcastle Waters) is the centre; extending northward 96 miles to Daly Waters; southwards 60 miles to Powell's Creeks; eastwards 100 miles; and westwards 70 miles." (Ravenscroft 1892, p. 121)

Citations

1. Pensalfini 2004, p. 143.
2. Pensalfini 1997.
3. Tindale 1974, p. 236.
4. Mathews 1900, pp. 495–496.
5. Mathews 1900, p. 495.
6. Mathews 1908a, p. 101.
7. Ravenscroft 1892, p. 122.

Sources

• Basedow, Herbert (1907). "Anthropological notes on the Western Coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 31. Adelaide: 1–62 – via BHL.
• Eylmann, Erhard (1908). Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (PDF). Berlin: D.Reimer – via Internet Archive.
• Mathews, R. H. (July–September 1900). "The Wombya Organization of the Australian Aborigines". American Anthropologist. 2 (3). Adelaide: 494–501. doi:10.1525/aa.1900.2.3.02a00050. JSTOR 658964.
• Mathews, R. H. (1907). "Notes on some aboriginal tribes". Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 41: 67–87. doi:10.5962/p.359489. S2CID 259716576 – via BHL.
• Mathews, R. H. (30 March 1908a). "The Sociology of the Arranda and Chingalee Tribes (Northern Territory Australia)". Folklore. 19 (1): 99–103. JSTOR 1254720.
• Mathews, R. H. (April–June 1908b). "Sociology of the Chingalee Tribe, Northern Australia". American Anthropologist. 10 (2): 281–285. doi:10.1525/aa.1908.10.2.02a00110. JSTOR 659579.
• Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia) (PDF). series C, Volume 140. Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-481-2.
• Pensalfini, Robert J. (1997). Jingulu grammar, dictionary, and texts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/10347.
• Pensalfini, Robert J. (2004). "Eulogizing a language: the Ngarnka experience" (pdf). International Journal of the Sociology of Language (164): 141–156.
• Ravenscroft, A. G. B. (1892). "Some habits and customs of the Chingalee tribe, Northern Territory". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 15: 121–122 – via BHL.
• Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1904). Northern Tribes of Central Australia. Macmillan Publishers – via Internet Archive.
• Stationmaster (1895). "On the habits etc. of the aborigines in the district of Powell's Creek, Northern Territory of South Australia". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 24: 176–180. JSTOR 2842215.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Tjingili (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2018.