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Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge.
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1995
Year
EthnohistoryEducationArchaeologyIndigenous PeopleVisual ArtsSocial SciencesIndigenous StudyIndigenous HistoryCultural HistoryAboriginal PeopleYolngu SocietyArt HistoryMaterial CultureIndigenous HeritageIndigenous ArtAncestral ConnectionsIndigenous Knowledge SystemsIndigenous StudiesEthnographyAnthropologyYolngu ArtSocial AnthropologyCultural Anthropology
Ancestral Connections unlocks the inner meaning of Australian Aboriginal bark painting, showing how its rich symbolism links the Yolngu directly with the Dreaming, the ongoing spiritual dimension of world‑creation. The book charts the role of art in Aboriginal society, both present and past. Using over ten years of fieldwork among the Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land and anthropological and art‑historical methods, the author systematically explores the graphic representation of traditional knowledge in Yolngu art. Morphy demonstrates that a dialectic of inside and outside interpretations structures Yolngu knowledge, that European interest has altered production conditions while the art’s inner meaning remains unchanged, and that the book is a major contribution to the anthropology of art, showing how the Yolngu use art as a tool of cultural survival and socio‑political transformation.
Ancestral Connections unlocks the inner meaning of Australian Aboriginal bark painting. Drawing on more than ten years of fieldwork among the Yolngu--an Aboriginal people of Northeast Arnhem Land--and applying both anthropological and art historical methods, Howard Morphy explores systematically the graphic representation of traditional knowledge in Yolngu art. He also charts the role that art has played in Aboriginal society both present and past. The rich symbolism of Yolngu art links the Yolngu directly with the Dreaming, the time of world-creation that continues as the spiritual dimension of the present. Morphy shows how a complex dialectic of inside and outside interpretations of painting structures the system of knowledge in Yolngu society, and how European interest in this art has caused certain changes in the conditions of its production. The inside significance of the art, however, has not changed; it retains its dual ability to represent and to constitute relationships between things. Ancestral Connections is a major contribution to the anthropology of art. A subtle commentary on the colonial encounter in northern Australia, the book demonstrates how the Yolngu have used their art--against all odds--as an instrument of cultural survival and as a component of the economic and political transformation of their society.