Publication | Closed Access
A Place for Strangers: Towards a History of Australian Aboriginal Being.
117
Citations
0
References
1995
Year
ColonialismEthnohistoryEducationIndigenous PeopleIndigenous MovementReligious BeliefsSocial SciencesIndigenous StudySettler ColonialismReligion StudiesIndigenous HistoryCultural HistoryIndigenous CulturesAustralian Aboriginal BeingIndigenous HeritageIndigenous FeminismsTraditional Aboriginal BeliefsCultureIndigenous Knowledge SystemsIndigenous StudiesIndigenous PhilosophyEthnographyAnthropologyAboriginal MythSocial AnthropologyCultural Anthropology
The book examines how contact with Melanesians, Indonesians, and Europeans has shaped traditional Aboriginal beliefs and practices, offering a continent‑wide study of outsider influence on Australian Aboriginal world‑views that is of interest to anthropology, religious studies, comparative philosophy, and Aboriginal studies. The study analyzes Aboriginal myth, ritual, cosmology, philosophy, social organization, subsistence patterns, and cultural change. It identifies a core set of religious beliefs that reflect precontact spirituality among Australian Aborigines.
Many of the elements ascribed to traditional Aboriginal beliefs and practices are the result of contact with external peoples - Melanesians and Indonesians, as well as Europeans. This controversial and provocative 1993 book is a detailed and continent-wide study of the impact of outsiders on Australian Aboriginal world-views. The author separates out a common core of religious beliefs which reflect the precontact spirituality of Australian Aborigines. This book investigates Aboriginal myth, ritual, cosmology and philosophy, and also examines social organisation, subsistence patterns and cultural change. It will be of great interest to readers in anthropology, religious studies, comparative philosophy and Aboriginal studies.