Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | O | Oceania

Aboriginal Religions in Australia: An Anthology of Recent Writings.

Article Excerpt
Aboriginal Religions in Australia: an Anthology of Recent Writings

Edited by Max Charlesworth, Francoise Dussart and Howard Morphy Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2005 Ppix+324. Price: 47.50 [pounds sterling] cloth.

A sequel to an earlier anthology (Charlesworth et al. Religion in Aboriginal Australia, 1984) the present work suggests the range of interests and directions in the study of Aboriginal religions between 1985 and 2003. The chapters are subdivided into an eclectic array of topics such as 'Sacred Places' 'Art and Religion,' 'Religion and Law' etc.; a preliminary section also includes valuable recent reconsiderations of the works of two major twentieth century contributers to the study of Aboriginal religions (J. Mulvaney on Spencer and Gillen; Ian Keen on W.E.H. Stanner) and of an early controversy (L. R. Hiatt on the 'High God' dispute). Charlesworth's ample introduction provides extensive contextualisation to the chapters; additional comment by the editors precedes each section. As an anthology of previously published sources, much of the book's theoretical and ethnographic input is by now familiar in outline to students of Aboriginal cultures, but an anthology's advantage is that it offers the opportunity to look at topically and ethnographically diverse studies under one...