Maramanindji
Indigenous Australian tribe of the Northern territory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Marimanindji were an indigenous Australian tribe of the Northern territory. Little is known of them.
Name
The anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner thought that other attested tribal names, Maritjamiri and Mangikurungu, properly belonged to the Marinmanindji.[1] Norman Tindale noted a similarity between their name and that of the Nanggikorongo also identified in this area, but did not draw any conclusion, since adequate material to clarify the overlap was not available.[2]
Language
Marimanindji was a dialect within the Marrithiyel language cluster and is now critically endangered or dormant,[3][4] with only a few speakers as of 2007.[5]
Country
Marimanindji ranged to the south of Hermit Hill, in the central Daly River area.[2] Later work indicated that they lived south of both the Daly and Darwin rivers, to the west, and near the headwaters of the Muldiva river.[3] The Marranunggu and Marrithiyal lay to their west, the Ngan'gimerri to their south and the Kamu and Moil to the east.[6]
People
They are generally grouped as one of the Marrithiyal. Stanner's fieldwork in 1933 suggested to him that their kinship system was of the Kariera type.[7]
Alternative names
- Maramanandji
- Maramarandji
- Marimanindu
- Marramaninjsji
- Marramaninyshi
- Murinmanindji[3]