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Aboriginal victors of the desert crusade
Jigalong mob: aboriginal victors of the desert crusade
166 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Concerned with the adaptive strategies of Aborigines at Jigalong a non-traditional community comprised of several linguistics groups, which allow them to maintain a degree of cultural integrity in the face of Westernization; Subjects covered; 1) General historical information; 2) Jigalong social, economic and political organization; tribal, linguistic and regional affiliation of community members (majority of whom are Mandjildjara, Gadudjara or Wanman speakers); camp layout; family life and marriage; kinship system; kin terms and role behaviour; section systems, station and mission employment as major sources of income; role of subsistence activities; missionaries and the distribution of government monies; settlement administration; Aboriginal leadership and authority; Abor. intra and inter-community relations; Abor. and white relations; 3) Religion; general information re Dream time concepts and mythology; concept of Law as synonomous with traditional culture and the Dreamtime heritage; totemism - 2 types, conception and ancestral; magic-curing, sorcery, featherfeet ritual killers; ritual; concepts of power and sacredness; ritual generational divisions and status; types of ritual - classed by personnel, mythological origin, and purpose; purposes - initiation, ancestralinstructive, commemorative-recreational, increase; describes Nga; wajil, rain-making ritual; ritual paraphernalia; inter-community contacts and cultural transmission - role of periodic big meetings at which Aborigines from a wide area assemble for various ritual purposes, particularly initiation, in introducing changes to traditional religion; 4) Acceptance of Western cultural elements; easy acceptance of utilitarian items and other material goods even for ritual purposes, except when perceived to contravene the Law; medicine; tobacco; mass media exposure; young mens adoption of cowboy culture in station context; separation of children and adults by missionaries through schools and dormitories in attempt to instill new values and behaviour patterns; Aboriginal modification of meaning and usage of borrowed items and behaviour patterns; 5) Rejection of Christianity; describes the Aboriginal and mission sub-cultures and role - stereotypes each group holds of the other - the whitefellaChristians v. the children of the devil; failure of parent-child separations to instill Western values as a permanent part of life; Aboriginal missionary interaction - formal and structured in terms of status and authority differences; lack communication - refusal by missionarys to learn an Aboriginal language; rationalization by missionaries of their failure to make converts in terms of Aboriginal inadequacies; conflicts with missionaries over beating of children, sheltering women from promised husbands, cheating Aborigines of government pensions; characterizes above conditions as reinforcing traditional orientation of Jigalong people; 6) Survival strategies; emergence of unifying concept of Aboriginality; development of community solidarity and shared religious organization; coping with whites made easier by marginal location, illusion of autonomy, and Aboriginal ethnocentrism; preservation of integrity of the Law; book concludes with remarks on late developments at Jigalong, particularly the closing of the mission in 1969 and administrative takeover by the government.
Environmental and Historical Setting -- The Jigalong Mob -- The Religious Life -- The Acceptance of Western Cultural Elements -- Continuities and Rejection of Christianity -- Conclusion: Strategies for Survival.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-161) and index.
Aboriginal Australians - Western Australia - Jigalong Mission
Aboriginal Australians - Social life and customs
Aboriginal Australians - Missions - Western Australia
Menlo Park, Calif. : Cummings Pub. Co., 1974
Kiste and Ogan social change series in anthropology