The old men, who get the best food and hold the franchise of
    the tribe in their hands, manage to secure an extra supply of
    the prettiest girls.[219]

A further evidence of the keen sexual interest of the male is furnished by the fact that even when the difficulties in the way of getting a wife are regularly overcome by the youth, the other men of the group, especially the older ones, reserve a temporary but prior claim on her.[220]

In addition to a lively sexual interest in the women of their own group, we find that even the lowest races have a well-developed appreciation of the property value of women.  In the earliest times women were the sole creators of certain economic values, and since the women contributed as much or more to the support of the men as the men contributed to the support of the women, the men naturally got and kept as many women as possible.[221] The condition prevailing in this regard in central Australia is stated by Howitt: 

It is an advantage to a man to have as many Piraurus as possible.  He has then less work to do in hunting as his Piraurus when present supply him with a share of the food which they procure, their own Noas being absent.  He also obtains great influence in the tribe by lending his Piraurus occasionally and receiving presents from young men to whom Piraurus have not yet been allotted, or who may not have Piraurus with them in the camp where they are.  This is at all times carried on, and such a man accumulates a lot of property, weapons of all kinds, trinkets, etc., which he in turn gives away to prominent men, heads of totems, and such, and thus adds to his own influence.  This is regarded by the Dieri as in no way anything but quite right and proper.[222]

The following passages also from Spencer and Gillen’s description of the marriage customs of these aborigines show both the nature of the sexual system of these tribes in general and the well-developed nature of both their sexual and their property interest in their women: 

The word Nupa is without any exception applied indiscriminately by men of a particular group to women of another group, and vice versa, and simply implies a member of a group of possible wives or husbands, as the case may be.  While this is so it must be remembered that in actual practice each individual man has one or perhaps two of these Nupa women who are especially attached to himself, and live with him in his own camp.  In addition to them, however, each man has certain Nupa women beyond the limited number just referred to, with whom he stands in the relation of Piraungaru.  To women who are the Piraungaru of a man (the term is a reciprocal one) the latter has access under certain conditions, so that they may be considered as accessory wives.  The result is that in the Urabunna tribe every woman is the especial