Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology (Paperback)

by L. R. Hiatt (Author) "In the autumn of 1768, just after the Endeavour had set out from Plymouth on its voyage of discovery, a London ordnance clerk named Granville..." (more)
Key Phrases: kulama ceremony, phantom hordes, female initiand, Arnhem Land, Rainbow Serpent, Northern Territory (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"In our native titles era, lawyers, historians and interested non-professionals would find it useful to learn more of anthropologists' intellectual engagements with Aboriginal people over the past century or so. This important book is a good place to start; it is an achievement worthy of a distinguished tribal elder." Bruce Rigsby, Australian Journal of Politics and History

"Reading each of these chapters as separate essays provides one with a brilliant and critical commentary on the history of anthropological thought....Reading the essays in their totality is fascinating. In many ways they read like a mystery of a detective story where the plot is set in the 1850's, subplots and mini-narratives are added on and eventually the 'scientism' of social anthropology displaces the misnomers of the nineteenth century as well as the metaphysics of Aboriginal thought and interpretation." Aram Yengoyan, American Anthropologist

"Reading the essays in their totality is fascinating. In many ways they read like mystery or detective stories in which the plots are set in the 1850's, subplots and mininarratives are added on, and eventually the scientism of social anthropology displaces the misnomers of the 19th century as well as the metaphysics of Aboriginal thought and interpretation. Each chapter drew me intellectually and inquisitively to the ideas and issues espoused prior to 1910." Aram A. Yengoyan, American Anthropologist

Product Description
In the nineteenth century, Australian Aborigines were used by European scholars as an exemplar of early human forms, and have consequently featured as the crucial case study for generations of social theorists and anthropologists. Arguments about Aborigines examines controversial subjects such as family life, religion and ritual, and land rights through the prism of Aboriginal studies. Professor Hiatt's book will provide a valuable introduction to Aboriginal ethnography, and is a shrewd and stimulating history of the central questions in Aboriginal studies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521566193
• ISBN-13: 978-0521566193
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,654,038 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arguments About Aborigines, June 14, 2000

By	John Harkey (Providence, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology (Hardcover)

At first I felt awe, then dismay, at the amount of literature available on this most-studied culture, the Aborigine of Australia. The culture has been of intense interest since the ealiest days of formal ethnological and anthropological enquiry. Hiatt's book has given me a perspective into the history of scholarly enquiry that informs and conditions my reaction to the work of others. His format is subject-oriented according to his own scholarly interest in the Aborigine but is prefaced in each chapter by a review of the prejudices and aspirations of his predecessors. The book is highly readable and very stimulating. I consider it essential, at the least, to others like myself who have no formal anthropological training but who must discern and rely on the work and opinions of scholars.