At Home in the World, Volume 10Ours is a century of uprootedness, with fewer and fewer people living out their lives where they are born. At such a time, in such a world, what does it mean to be "at home?" Perhaps among a nomadic people, for whom dwelling is not synonymous with being housed and settled, the search for an answer to this question might lead to a new way of thinking about home and homelessness, exile and belonging. At Home in the World is the story of just such a search. Intermittently over a period of three years Michael Jackson lived, worked, and traveled extensively in Central Australia. This book chronicles his experience among the Warlpiri of the Tanami Desert. Something of a nomad himself, having lived in New Zealand, Sierra Leone, England, France, Australia, and the United States, Jackson is deft at capturing the ambiguities of home as a lived experience among the Warlpiri. Blending narrative ethnography, empirical research, philosophy, and poetry, he focuses on the existential meaning of being at home in the world. Here home becomes a metaphor for the intimate relationship between the part of the world a person calls "self" and the part of the world called "other." To speak of "at-homeness," Jackson suggests, implies that people everywhere try to strike a balance between closure and openness, between acting and being acted upon, between acquiescing in the given and choosing their own fate. His book is an exhilarating journey into this existential struggle, responsive at every turn to the political questions of equity and justice that such a struggle entails. A moving depiction of an aboriginal culture at once at home and in exile, and a personal meditation on the practice of ethnography and the meaning of home in our increasingly rootless age, At Home in the World is a timely reflection on how, in defining home, we continue to define ourselves. |
Contents
Section 1 | 1 |
Section 2 | 9 |
Section 3 | 16 |
Section 4 | 28 |
Section 5 | 32 |
Section 6 | 41 |
Section 7 | 102 |
Section 8 | 147 |
Section 9 | 156 |
Section 10 | 173 |
Section 11 | 177 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal Adorno Alice Springs anthropology Archie Arrernte asked Billy body boomerangs born bush called camp Central Australia Central Land Council ceremony Creek culture dark desert dirt Dreaming earth experience father feel felt fieldwork fire Francine Granites ground hand human Jakamarra Jangala Japaljarri Japangardi Jedda John Berger journey jukurrpa Jungarrayi Jupurrurla kangaroo kardiya kids kirda knowledge Kulpulurnu kurdungurlu Kurlungarlinpa kuruwarri Lajamanu land landscape living looking Maisie metaphor Mick mother mulga Nancy Munn Napanangka night Nola Nora Nugget Olive Pink one's Paraluyu parnpa Pepper person Pincher Pincher Jampijinpa Pintupi pirlirrpa Press Puyurru Ringer road sacred sense sitting social spear spinifex story swags talk Tanami TANAMI DESERT tell Theodor Adorno things thought told Toyota track trans traveled tree Vaughan Springs walked walya Wanda wanted Warlpiri watiyawarnu Wave Hill whitefellas Wilson women words York Yuendumu Yunkuyirranu Yuwayi Zack Zack's