Introduction

By far the largest of the sixteen subclans at Avatip is Maliyaw of Wuluwi-Nyawi clan-pair. With 246 members in 1978 it represented nearly a fifth of the population of Avatip, and was almost half as large again as its nearest rival in size, the subclan Yimal. Maliyaw is the most powerful and aggressive group in the debating system, and has been involved in more name-disputes over the past forty years or so than any other group. Many weaker subclans are dependent on its orators for support in debates; particularly the small but ritually senior Nggəla'angkw subclan Makəm, as I described in Chapter 6, in its long-standing disputes with its powerful junior subclan, Yimal. Maliyaw had six highly expert orators in 1978, a number equalled only by one other subclan. And these men, who ranged in age from about forty to seventy were notorious – as their predecessors seem to have been before them – for ‘always stealing people's names’.

The growth of Maliyaw to its present size occurred fairly rapidly and within the past three generations or so. It is genealogically the most junior of the seven Wuluwi-Nyawi subclans, and in the course of its expansion it has engaged, with many successes, in a long-term bid to improve its ceremonial status.