@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ on:
       - 'dev/tasks/**'
       - 'docker-compose.yml'
 
+env:
+  ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH: ${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }}
+
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.repository }}-${{ github.head_ref || github.sha }}-${{ github.workflow }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
@@ -52,9 +55,7 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Git Fixup
         shell: bash
-        run: |
-          DEFAULT_BRANCH=${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }}
-          git branch $DEFAULT_BRANCH origin/$DEFAULT_BRANCH || true
+        run: git branch $ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH origin/$ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH || true
       - name: Setup Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v4
         with:
 
@@ -85,7 +85,11 @@ jobs:
         env:
           ARCHERY_DOCKER_USER: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USER }}
           ARCHERY_DOCKER_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
-        run: archery docker run -e ARCHERY_INTEGRATION_WITH_RUST=1 conda-integration
+        run: >
+          archery docker run \
+            -e ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH=${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }} \
+            -e ARCHERY_INTEGRATION_WITH_RUST=1 \
+            conda-integration
       - name: Docker Push
         if: success() && github.event_name == 'push' && github.repository == 'apache/arrow'
         env:
 
@@ -184,6 +184,7 @@ install:
   - sudo -H pip3 install -e dev/archery[docker]
 
 script:
+  - export ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref origin/HEAD | sed s@origin/@@)
   - |
     archery docker run \
       ${DOCKER_RUN_ARGS} \
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ fi
 
 dask=$1
 
-if [ "${dask}" = "master" ]; then
+if [ "${dask}" = "upstream_devel" ]; then
   pip install https://github.com/dask/dask/archive/main.tar.gz#egg=dask[dataframe]
 elif [ "${dask}" = "latest" ]; then
   pip install dask[dataframe]
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ else
   pip install numpy==${numpy}
 fi
 
-if [ "${pandas}" = "master" ]; then
+if [ "${pandas}" = "upstream_devel" ]; then
   pip install git+https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas.git --no-build-isolation
 elif [ "${pandas}" = "nightly" ]; then
   pip install --extra-index-url https://pypi.anaconda.org/scipy-wheels-nightly/simple --pre pandas
 
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ def benchmark_run(ctx, rev_or_path, src, preserve, output, cmake_extras,
               help="Hide counters field in diff report.")
 @click.argument("contender", metavar="[<contender>",
                 default=ArrowSources.WORKSPACE, required=False)
-@click.argument("baseline", metavar="[<baseline>]]", default="origin/master",
+@click.argument("baseline", metavar="[<baseline>]]", default="origin/HEAD",
                 required=False)
 @click.pass_context
 def benchmark_diff(ctx, src, preserve, output, language, cmake_extras,
@@ -542,7 +542,8 @@ def benchmark_diff(ctx, src, preserve, output, language, cmake_extras,
 
     The caller can optionally specify both the contender and the baseline. If
     unspecified, the contender will default to the current workspace (like git)
-    and the baseline will default to master.
+    and the baseline will default to the mainline development branch (i.e.
+    default git branch).
 
     Each target (contender or baseline) can either be a git revision
     (commit, tag, special values like HEAD) or a cmake build directory. This
@@ -559,16 +560,18 @@ def benchmark_diff(ctx, src, preserve, output, language, cmake_extras,
     Examples:
 
     \b
-    # Compare workspace (contender) with master (baseline)
+    # Compare workspace (contender) against the mainline development branch
+    # (baseline)
     \b
     archery benchmark diff
 
     \b
-    # Compare master (contender) with latest version (baseline)
+    # Compare the mainline development branch (contender) against the latest
+    # version (baseline)
     \b
     export LAST=$(git tag -l "apache-arrow-[0-9]*" | sort -rV | head -1)
     \b
-    archery benchmark diff master "$LAST"
+    archery benchmark diff <default-branch> "$LAST"
 
     \b
     # Compare g++7 (contender) with clang++-8 (baseline) builds
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ def check_config(obj, config_path):
                    'locally. Examples: https://github.com/apache/arrow or '
                    'https://github.com/kszucs/arrow.')
 @click.option('--arrow-branch', '-b', default=None,
-              help='Give the branch name explicitly, e.g. master, ARROW-1949.')
+              help='Give the branch name explicitly, e.g. ARROW-1949.')
 @click.option('--arrow-sha', '-t', default=None,
               help='Set commit SHA or Tag name explicitly, e.g. f67a515, '
                    'apache-arrow-0.11.1.')
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ def submit(obj, tasks, groups, params, job_prefix, config_path, arrow_version,
 
 
 @crossbow.command()
-@click.option('--base-branch', default="master",
+@click.option('--base-branch', default=None,
               help='Set base branch for the PR.')
 @click.option('--create-pr', is_flag=True, default=False,
               help='Create GitHub Pull Request')
@@ -192,6 +192,12 @@ def verify_release_candidate(obj, base_branch, create_pr,
 
     # Redefine Arrow repo to use the correct arrow remote.
     arrow = Repo(path=obj['arrow'].path, remote_url=remote)
+
+    # Default value for base_branch is the repository's default branch name
+    if base_branch is None:
+        # Get the default branch name from the repository
+        base_branch = arrow.default_branch_name
+
     response = arrow.github_pr(title=pr_title, head=head_branch,
                                base=base_branch, body=pr_body,
                                github_token=obj['queue'].github_token,
@@ -225,7 +231,7 @@ def verify_release_candidate(obj, base_branch, create_pr,
                    'locally. Examples: https://github.com/apache/arrow or '
                    'https://github.com/kszucs/arrow.')
 @click.option('--arrow-branch', '-b', default=None,
-              help='Give the branch name explicitly, e.g. master, ARROW-1949.')
+              help='Give the branch name explicitly, e.g. ARROW-1949.')
 @click.option('--arrow-sha', '-t', default=None,
               help='Set commit SHA or Tag name explicitly, e.g. f67a515, '
                    'apache-arrow-0.11.1.')
 
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 from io import StringIO
 from pathlib import Path
 from datetime import date
+import warnings
 
 import jinja2
 from ruamel.yaml import YAML
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ def format_all(items, pattern):
 
 # configurations for setting up branch skipping
 # - appveyor has a feature to skip builds without an appveyor.yml
-# - travis reads from the master branch and applies the rules
+# - travis reads from the default branch and applies the rules
 # - circle requires the configuration to be present on all branch, even ones
 #   that are configured to be skipped
 # - azure skips branches without azure-pipelines.yml by default
@@ -361,6 +362,29 @@ def signature(self):
         return pygit2.Signature(self.user_name, self.user_email,
                                 int(time.time()))
 
+    @property
+    def default_branch_name(self):
+        default_branch_name = os.getenv("ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH")
+
+        if default_branch_name is None:
+            try:
+                ref_obj = self.repo.references["refs/remotes/origin/HEAD"]
+                target_name = ref_obj.target
+                target_name_tokenized = target_name.split("/")
+                default_branch_name = target_name_tokenized[-1]
+            except KeyError:
+                # TODO: ARROW-18011 to track changing the hard coded default
+                # value from "master" to "main".
+                default_branch_name = "master"
+                warnings.warn('Unable to determine default branch name: '
+                              'ARCHERY_DEFAULT_BRANCH environment variable is '
+                              'not set. Git repository does not contain a '
+                              '\'refs/remotes/origin/HEAD\'reference. Setting '
+                              'the default branch name to ' +
+                              default_branch_name, RuntimeWarning)
+
+        return default_branch_name
+
     def create_tree(self, files):
         builder = self.repo.TreeBuilder()
 
@@ -382,7 +406,7 @@ def create_commit(self, files, parents=None, message='',
         if parents is None:
             # by default use the main branch as the base of the new branch
             # required to reuse github actions cache across crossbow tasks
-            commit, _ = self.repo.resolve_refish("master")
+            commit, _ = self.repo.resolve_refish(self.default_branch_name)
             parents = [commit.id]
         tree_id = self.create_tree(files)
 
@@ -546,8 +570,10 @@ def github_overwrite_release_assets(self, tag_name, target_commitish,
                         'Unsupported upload method {}'.format(method)
                     )
 
-    def github_pr(self, title, head=None, base="master", body=None,
+    def github_pr(self, title, head=None, base=None, body=None,
                   github_token=None, create=False):
+        # Default value for base is the default_branch_name
+        base = self.default_branch_name if base is None else base
         github_token = github_token or self.github_token
         repo = self.as_github_repo(github_token=github_token)
         if create:
@@ -1289,11 +1315,15 @@ def validate(self):
                     'is: `{}`'.format(task_name, str(e))
                 )
 
+        # Get the default branch name from the repository
+        arrow_source_dir = ArrowSources.find()
+        repo = Repo(arrow_source_dir.path)
+
         # validate that the defined tasks are renderable, in order to to that
         # define the required object with dummy data
         target = Target(
             head='e279a7e06e61c14868ca7d71dea795420aea6539',
-            branch='master',
+            branch=repo.default_branch_name,
             remote='https://github.com/apache/arrow',
             version='1.0.0dev123',
             r_version='0.13.0.100000123',
 
@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ def docker_run(obj, image, command, *, env, user, force_pull, force_build,
     PYTHON=3.8 archery docker run conda-python
 
     # disable the cache only for the leaf image
-    PANDAS=master archery docker run --no-leaf-cache conda-python-pandas
+    PANDAS=upstream_devel archery docker run --no-leaf-cache \
+        conda-python-pandas
 
     # entirely skip building the image
     archery docker run --no-pull --no-build conda-python
 
@@ -259,12 +259,12 @@ def test_arrow_example_validation_passes(arrow_compose_path):
 def test_compose_default_params_and_env(arrow_compose_path):
     compose = DockerCompose(arrow_compose_path, params=dict(
         UBUNTU='18.04',
-        DASK='master'
+        DASK='upstream_devel'
     ))
     assert compose.config.dotenv == arrow_compose_env
     assert compose.config.params == {
         'UBUNTU': '18.04',
-        'DASK': 'master',
+        'DASK': 'upstream_devel',
     }
 
 
@@ -492,7 +492,7 @@ def test_compose_push(arrow_compose_path):
 def test_compose_error(arrow_compose_path):
     compose = DockerCompose(arrow_compose_path, params=dict(
         PYTHON='3.8',
-        PANDAS='master'
+        PANDAS='upstream_devel'
     ))
 
     error = subprocess.CalledProcessError(99, [])
@@ -503,7 +503,7 @@ def test_compose_error(arrow_compose_path):
     exception_message = str(exc.value)
     assert "exited with a non-zero exit code 99" in exception_message
     assert "PANDAS: latest" in exception_message
-    assert "export PANDAS=master" in exception_message
+    assert "export PANDAS=upstream_devel" in exception_message
 
 
 def test_image_with_gpu(arrow_compose_path):