The Mardudjara aborigines
Subtitle: living the dream in Australia's desert
By: by Robert Tonkinson.
Series: Case studies in cultural anthropology
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Published: 1978
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 149
Subjects: Aboriginal Australians -- Australia -- Gibson Desert (W.A.)
Notes: Bibliography: p. 141-147.
Filmography: p. 148-149.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : the Australian aborigines. The original settlers -- Variations and common themes -- Western desert culture -- Who are the mardudjara? -- Doing fieldwork in the desert -- The spiritual imperative. Introduction -- The dreamtime -- Religion and morality -- Ensuring continuity -- Subsistence in a most marginal habitat. Ecological setting -- The desert through explorers’ eyes -- The western desert as a culture area -- Coping with the desert -- Conclusion -- The social imperative. Kinship -- Local organization -- Social categories -- Life cycle and male initiation. Spiritual preexistence -- Birth -- Childhood -- Male initiation -- Marriage -- Growing old -- Death and its aftermath -- The religious life. The sexual division of ritual labor -- Myth, ritual, and songline -- Sites and paraphernalia -- Magic and sorcery -- Dynamic elements in the religious life -- Living the dream. The ideal at the level of group and society -- The realities of group and society -- The ideal at the level of the individual -- The realities of individual behavior -- The mardudjara today. Aboriginal emigration and the frontier -- Change and continuity -- Problems in adaptation -- Conclusion -- Glossary.