Names and Substance in the Australian Subsection System

Names and Substance in the Australian Subsection System

Author: Carl Georg Brandenstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1982-11

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9780226864815

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Structural analysis of subsection system as opposition between six basic physical or temperamental qualities; constructs from this classification an Aboriginal World Order; material drawn from many areas, with an emphasis on north-west Australia; includes tribal index to contents.


German Ethnography in Australia

German Ethnography in Australia

Author: Nicolas Peterson

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2017-09-21

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 1760461326

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The contribution of German ethnography to Australian anthropological scholarship on Aboriginal societies and cultures has been limited, primarily because few people working in the field read German. But it has also been neglected because its humanistic concerns with language, religion and mythology contrasted with the mainstream British social anthropological tradition that prevailed in Australia until the late 1960s. The advent of native title claims, which require drawing on the earliest ethnography for any area, together with an increase in research on rock art of the Kimberley region, has stimulated interest in this German ethnography, as have some recent book translations. Even so, several major bodies of ethnography, such as the 13 volumes on the cultures of northeastern South Australia and the seven volumes on the Aranda of the Alice Springs region, remain inaccessible, along with many ethnographically rich articles and reports in mission archives. In 18 chapters, this book introduces and reviews the significance of this neglected work, much of it by missionaries who first wrote on Australian Aboriginal cultures in the 1840s. Almost all of these German speakers, in particular the missionaries, learnt an Aboriginal language in order to be able to document religious beliefs, mythology and songs as a first step to conversion. As a result, they produced an enormously valuable body of work that will greatly enrich regional ethnographies.


Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies

Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies

Author: Ronald Murray Berndt

Publisher: Aboriginal Studies Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0855751894

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Shifts of emphasis from 1961-1986 in the study of Aboriginal economy, kinship, gender issues; religion, law and social anthropology; papers by C. Anderson, J.A. Barnes, R.M. Berndt and R. Tonkinson, I. Keen, F. Merlan, H. Morphy, and N.M. Williams annotated separately.


Skin, Kin and Clan

Skin, Kin and Clan

Author: Patrick McConvell

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2018-04-01

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 1760461644

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Australia is unique in the world for its diverse and interlocking systems of Indigenous social organisation. On no other continent do we see such an array of complex and contrasting social arrangements, coordinated through a principle of 'universal kinship' whereby two strangers meeting for the first time can recognise one another as kin. For some time, Australian kinship studies suffered from poor theorisation and insufficient aggregation of data. The large-scale AustKin project sought to redress these problems through the careful compilation of kinship information. Arising from the project, this book presents recent original research by a range of authors in the field on the kinship and social category systems in Australia. A number of the contributions focus on reconstructing how these systems originated and developed over time. Others are concerned with the relationship between kinship and land, the semantics of kin terms and the dynamics of kin interactions.


Ecologies of Participation

Ecologies of Participation

Author: Zayin Cabot

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2018-04-30

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1498568165

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In this daring debut, Zayin Cabot challenges the wise homebodies of academia. A profoundly interdisciplinary approach to comparative scholarship, Ecologies of Participation offers a methodology whereby we can face our shared planetary predicament. It is grounded in process philosophy, and asserts the importance of a new ontology of agency. It traces the importance of Lévy-Bruhl and Lévi-Strauss’s early work, while offering new insight into the ontological turn in anthropology. This book sets out to destabilize modern reductionist trends toward scientific materialism, without falling into postmodern cultural constructivism. It does not assume the givenness of nature or culture. By advancing a multi-ontology approach, this work offers robust interventions into decolonial and critical studies. Cabot takes contemporary scholarship in new and exciting directions—offering an unstable ground from which to examine our shared worlds, both human and other. Throughout the last chapters of the book, these threads are illuminated through a detailed ethics of comparison and participation.


The Metamorphoses of Kinship

The Metamorphoses of Kinship

Author: Maurice Godelier

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2012-03-03

Total Pages: 1446

ISBN-13: 1781683921

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With marriage in decline, divorce on the rise, the demise of the nuclear family, and the increase in marriages and adoptions among same-sex partners, it is clear that the structures of kinship in the modern West are in a state of flux. In The Metamorphoses of Kinship, the world-renowned anthropologist Maurice Godelier contextualizes these developments, surveying the accumulated experience of humanity with regard to such phenomena as the organization of lines of descent, sexuality and sexual prohibitions. In parallel, Godelier studies the evolution of Western conjugal and familial traditions from their roots in the nineteenth century to the present. The conclusion he draws is that it is never the case that a man and a woman are sufficient on their own to raise a child, and nowhere are relations of kinship or the family the keystone of society. Godelier argues that the changes of the last thirty years do not herald the disappearance or death agony of kinship, but rather its remarkable metamorphosis-one that, ironically, is bringing us closer to the "traditional" societies studied by ethnologists.


Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia

Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia

Author: Adam Kendon

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 0521360080

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This 1988 book was the first full-length study ever to be published on the subject of sign language as a means of communication among Australian Aborigines. Based on fieldwork conducted over a span of nine years, the volume presents a thorough analysis of the structure of sign languages and their relationship to spoken languages.


The Languages and Linguistics of Australia

The Languages and Linguistics of Australia

Author: Harold Koch

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-08-19

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 3110279770

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The Languages and Linguistics of Australia: A Comprehensive Guide is part of the multi-volume reference work on the languages and linguistics of the continents of the world. The volume provides a thorough overview of Australian languages, including their linguistic structures, their genetic relationships, and issues of language maintenance and revitalisation. Australian English, Aboriginal English and other contact varieties are also discussed.


The Comparative Method Reviewed

The Comparative Method Reviewed

Author: Mark Durie

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1996-05-16

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0195362101

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Historical reconstruction of languages relies on the comparative method, which itself depends on the notion of the regularity of change. The regularity of sound change is the famous Neogrammarian Hypothesis: "sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exception." The comparative method, however, is not restricted to the consideration of sound change, and neither is the assumption of regularity. Syntactic, morphological, and semantic change are all amenable in varying degrees, to comparative reconstruction, and each type of change is constrained in ways that enable the researcher to distinguish between regular and more irregular changes. This volume draws together studies by scholars engaged in historical reconstruction, all focussing on the subject of regularity and irregularity in the comparative method. A wide range of languages are represented, including Chinese, Germanic, and Austronesian.


Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia

Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia

Author: Philip A. Clarke

Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING

Published: 2023-04-03

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1486315984

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Australia is home to many distinctive species of birds, and Aboriginal peoples have developed close alliances with them over the millennia of their custodianship of this country. Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia: Historical and Cultural Relationships provides a review of the broad physical, historical and cultural relationships that Aboriginal people have had with the Australian avifauna. This book aims to raise awareness of the alternative bodies of ornithological knowledge that reside outside of Western science. It describes the role of birds as totemic ancestors and spirit beings, and explores Aboriginal bird nomenclature, foraging techniques and the use of avian materials to make food, medicine and artefacts. Through a historical perspective, this book examines the gaps between knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and Western science, to encourage greater collaboration and acknowledgment in the future. Cultural sensitivity Readers are warned that there may be words, descriptions and terms used in this book that are culturally sensitive, and which might not normally be used in certain public or community contexts. While this information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided by the author in a historical context. This publication may also contain quotations, terms and annotations that reflect the historical attitude of the original author or that of the period in which the item was written, and may be considered inappropriate today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this publication may contain the names and images of people who have passed away.