학술논문

Locating an Australia-wide anthropology
Document Type
Report
Source
Oceania. March, 2012, Vol. 82 Issue 1, p4, 11 p.
Subject
Australia
Language
English
ISSN
0029-8077
Abstract
Ethnographic research concerning Aboriginal social life in the earlier settled areas of the continent has formed a minor strand within the body of Australian anthropological research. Yet these studies speak directly to the current national discourse concerning distressing conditions in many Aboriginal communities in the north. The kind of anthropology generated in South East Australia has always sought to do more than simply depict particular collective worlds--it also addresses how they are made, particularly in conditions of upheaval, relocation and engagement with state institutions and the nation's ideologies. By drawing attention to one kind of border, that between cultural/social worlds we hope to overcome another boundary, that between ethnographies of the north and the south. To this end, we draw attention to the process of boundary making that has been a crucial dynamic within the changing historical and social configurations that have shaped Aboriginal experiences of the social world. Thus, instead of reporting on the significance of cultural characteristics, this collection shifts attention to relationships with others, with the state and the encompassing society. Keywords: located anthropology, Australianist anthropology, borders.
The collection emerged from a conference' of the South East Australia Network of Anthropologists (SEANA), a title that expresses our regional ethnographic focus, but that conceals our larger ambitions. (2) [...]