A World of Relationships: Itineraries, Dreams, and Events in the Australian Western Desert, Volume 28

Front Cover
University of Toronto Press, Jan 1, 2005 - Social Science - 303 pages

A World of Relationships is an ethnographical account and anthropological study of the cultural use and social potential of dreams among Aboriginal groups of the Australian Western Desert. The outcome of fieldwork conducted in the area in the 1980s and 90s, it was originally published in French as Les jardins du nomade: Cosmologie, territoire et personne dans le désert occidental australien.

In her study, Sylvie Poirier explores the contemporary Aboriginal system of knowledge and law through an analysis of the relationships between the ancestral order, the 'sentient' land, and human agencies. At the ethnographical and analytical levels, particular attention is given to a range of local narratives and stories, and to the cultural construction of individual experiences. Poirier also investigates the cultural system of dreams and dreaming, and the process of their socialization, analysing their ideological, semantic, pragmatic, and experiential dimensions. Through the synthesis of a complex and diverse range of theoretical and empirical materials, A World of Relationships offers new insights into Australian Aboriginal sociality, historicity, and dynamics of cultural change and ritual innovation.

 

Contents

Introduction
3
A Story of Accommodation Resistance
15
Ancestrality Sentient Places and Social Spaces
52
Sociality Mobility and Composite Identity
92
Ways of Being Relating and Knowing
121
The Social Setting of Dreams and Dreaming
154
Ritual Vitality and Mobility
198
Ancestrality Imaginary and Historicity
242
Notes
257
References
273
Index
291
Copyright

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A World of Relationships: Itineraries, Dreams, and Events in the Australian ...
Sylvie Poirier
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Common terms and phrases

Aboriginal action activities affiliation ancestral Australia Balgo become belonging body bush camp ceremonies chapter close conception connections context Creek cultural dancing death deceased dream elders elements established example exchange existing experience expression families father forms given ground groups historicity human hunting identified identity important initiation interpretation itineraries Kartiya knowledge Kukatja Lake land linked living major means Mina Mina mission mother Mulan Myers mythical Napangarti narrative neighbouring night objects occurred one’s participate performed person Pintupi present reality realm received refer region relations relationships relatives represent respective responsibility ritual seen segments sense sequences settlement shared snake social songs spirit stories subsection term territorial tion Tjukurrpa told transformation travelling understanding usually Walawalarra Western Desert White Wirrimanu woman women Yagga Yagga Yawulyu young

References to this book

About the author (2005)

Sylvie Poirier is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Université Laval.

Bibliographic information

TitleA World of Relationships: Itineraries, Dreams, and Events in the Australian Western Desert, Volume 28
A World of Relationships: Itineraries, Dreams, and Events in the Australian Western Desert
EBSCO ebook academic collection
AuthorSylvie Poirier
Editionillustrated
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press, 2005
ISBN0802084141, 9780802084149
Length303 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Native American Studies
  
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