The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies
Building on the foundational work of Harry Lourandos, the book critically examines and challenges traditional approaches which have presented Indigenous Australian pasts as static and tethered to ecological rationalism.
The book reveals the ancient past of Aboriginal Australians to be one of long-term changes in social relationships and traditions, as well as the active management and manipulation of the environment.
It encourages a deeper appreciation of the ways Aboriginal peoples have engaged with, and constructed their worlds. It solicits a deeper understanding of the contemporary political and social context of research and the insidious impacts of colonialist philosophies. In short, it concerns people: both past and present.
Ultimately, The social archaeology of Australian Indigenous societies looks beyond the stereotype of Aboriginal peoples as 'hunter-gatherers' and charts new and challenging agendas for Australian Aboriginal archaeology.
Production Details
- Paperback
- 235mm x 155mm x 28mm
- 384pp
- Released June 2006
- ISBN 9780855754990
Excerpt
Contents
About The Author
All three editors are respected and widely published. They have drawn together Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars who, between them, represent a new generation of provocative and exciting thinkers.
Dr Bruno David is QEII Fellow at Monash University (Australia). He was awarded the inaugural UK Antiquity Prize in 1994.
Dr Bryce Barker is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Southern Queensland
Ian J. McNiven is Head of Indigenous Archaeology in Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, and is a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. His community-based research focuses on understanding the long-term development of Australian Indigenous maritime societies and the archaeology of seascapes and ritual and spiritual relationships with the sea.
He has held academic positions at the University of Queensland and The University of Melbourne, and visiting research fellowships at Cambridge University and Oxford University. Ian has considerable private industry experience as a cultural heritage consultant, and has worked on numerous native title cases including as an expert witness for the Torres Strait sea claim. Other research interests include the archaeology of western Victoria, the southern coast of New Guinea, and islands of the Queensland coast, and the colonial history of Indigenous archaeology.
In 2007-2009, Ian was President of the Australian Archaeological Association and he is an elected Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Society of Antiquaries London, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
About The Cover
Front cover photograph: Cygnet Repu of Mabuyag Island, Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait), painting a Kaigas (shovelhead shark), his maternal totem (awgadh), at Puluw Kod in 2001. Kind permission from Cygnet Repu to reproduce the photo. Photo courtesy of Ian J McNiven.