In traditional aboriginal society there are two important concepts which dominate a person's life: kinship and caste.
Kinship is a semi-generational concept which established who can marry who, as well as a number of other social interactions, rites and taboos. It cycles every two generations, thus ensuring a limit on inbreeding, even amongst isolated subsocieties. During the Ferozen Invasion many Aboriginal social institutions were destroyed, but kinship survived thanks to the Kunhanaamendaa of the north and the Alyawarra of the Outback, whose systems were fusioned and copied throughout Oceanyka's reconstructed Aboriginal civilisations. Members of the same kin are called skins.
The concept of kinship is inseparable from caste. There exist only two castes in Aboriginal culture; the garingali (or star-touched) who were a nation's generals, nobles, landowners, high priests and holders of other important public offices, and the gunyjani (or land-bound) from whom the lower and middle class was drawn from. Less respected members of the garingali, as well as the very elite of the gunyjani, made up an informal and non-hereditable class known as the longoni (or cloud-reaching), where Oceanyka's merchants, bannerets and priests usually found themselves.
Garingali kinship follows a four-class skin system:
| Skin | Can Marry | Children Are |
Kngwarriya | Upurla | Kimarra |
| Upurla | Kngwarriya | Pitjarra |
| Pitjarra | Kimarra | Upurla |
| Kimarra | Pitjarra | Kngwarriya |
Gunyjani kinship follows an eight-class skin system:
| Skin | Can Marry | Children Are |
Balyarriny | Kamarrangi | Buranyi |
| Bangariny | Yakimarr | Ngarrijbalangi |
| Buranyi | Kangal | Balyarriny |
| Burrarangi | Ngarrijbalangi | Kamarrangi |
| Kamarrangi | Balyarriny | Burrarangi |
| Kangal | Buranyi | Yakimarr |
| Ngarrijbalangi | Burrarangi | Bangariny |
| Yakimarr | Bangariny | Kangal |