The new aborigines : the politics of tradition in the Groote Eylandt area of Arnhem Land
Creators: name: Kauffman, Paul Richard
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 1978
Subjects: subject: Aboriginal Australians Australia Groote Eylandt Region (N.T.)
subject: Aboriginal Australians Social life and customs

description: The new Aborigines: the politics of tradition in the Groote Eylandt area of Arnhem land. Chapter 1: The problems investigated and the literature reviewed. The main problem is to establish the nature and direction of an "Aboriginal" identity emerging in the context of changed economic and political circumstances in the Groote Eylandt area of Arnhem land. The first chapter reviews the theoretical perspectives and assumptions of the anthropological literature on Groote Eylandt, particularly as they relate to social and cultural change. The hypothesis that the assimilation of Aborigines into European patterns of behaviour and conceptualization is inevitable is rejected as too broad to be of use. Chapter 2: Paradise lost? - the transition from a hunter-gatherer to capitalist economy. A transformation of the economic livelihood of Aborigines provides the context for the emerging "Aboriginal" identity. Aboriginal patterns of work and exploitation of resources before and after European settlement are discussed. The hunter-gatherer work pattern of small or family units undertaking a variety of selfdirected activities is contrasted with the division of economic roles at the settlements between European "managers" and the "managed" Aboriginal labourers. Aborigines however have continued to hunt and fish and recently to establish outstations. Aboriginal sources of employment and income are surveyed. The relationship between social and economic circumstances and the emergence of a new "Aboriginal" identity is explored. Chapter 3: The Groote Eylandt clan communities. The clans are identified as major cultural units of the Aboriginal population. Their functions and distribution in space and time are described in order to show why the clans are still important. Clan organization has been institutionalized by Aborigines in allocating mining royalties. Implications of the clan’s new functions are discussed. Chapter 4: Reclassification of kin This chapter develops a model of alliance between clan groups to explain the system of kin classification and modifications to it over time. It analyses the degree of regularity between the classificatory system and social relations, and the changes that have occurred over time. It compares kinship and marriage data from other Australian societies to develop an alternative hypothesis of the relationship between ideology and behaviour. Chapter 5: Religion This chapter reviews the sources of available information on Groote Eylandt religion and discusses its personal and political implications, with reference to other Australian literature. The importance of innovation and regional dialectics is considered. Through totemism the vocabularies of the ceremonies affirm attachments to particular localities and the land. The chapter establishes that a renaissance of religious ceremonies has occurred since Turner worked in the area in 1969, despite the pessimistic prognoses made in the past. Chapter 6: Conclusions This thesis has asked two questions: What are the main elements of an emerging "Aboriginal" identity on Groote Eylandt? Can social and cultural elements of a traditional hunter-gatherer formation continue indefinitely in a different economy? The usefulness of the notion "dialectic" is contrasted with the notion of "determination". The elements of the new identity are reconsidered. The increasing distinctiveness of Groote Eylandt thought and behaviour is explained in terms of forces shaping an emerging Aboriginal identity. It is concluded that the new identity is formed in particular from the institutions of kinship, clan allegiance and religion as they comprise representations and social practices associated customarily with claims of clans to particular "countries" . It is also concluded that in the contemporary economic situation of mineral exploitation by the capitalist sector and concessionary incomes for Aborigines, these traditional institutions are developing dynamically and have acquired the new cultural and political function of articulating rights to land of Aborigines".