MYERS - FRED - Ways of Place Making PDF

Ways of Place-Making
Author(s): Fred R. Myers

Source: La Ricerca Folklorica, No. 45, Antropologia delle sensazioni (Apr., 2002), pp. 101-119
Published by: Grafo Spa
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1480159
Accessed: 18-12-2019 18:42 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Grafo Spa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to La Ricerca
Folklorica
This content downloaded from 187.241.65.139 on Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:42:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BIBLIOTECA 101
FRED R. MYERS Ways of Place-Making*
However absolute the 'dreaming' 1979, Myers 1988a,

significance of Wilmsen 1983). This vari-
places may seem, they were also always constitut-
ously evaluated relationship to nature, some-
ed... within and through the range of
times practices
seen positively and sometimes negatively,
which linked people with places. [Francesca Merlan
has been central in the representation of such
1998, in press]
societies, whether they were denied to "own
Introduction land" as property because they appeared simply
to dwell in nature and to wander over the land, as
The meaningfulness of "place" in Aboriginal
occurred in the legitimation of the original British
Australian cultural life - as an index of a distinc-
dispossession of Aborigines (see Williams 1986,
tive relationship between Aboriginal persons and
Wilmsen 1989); or whether they are understood
their behavioral environment - has been of signif-
as having a respect for the environment and the
icant interest to cultural critics, New Age writers,
land as a place of dwelling, as has occurred in
to anthropologists (Jackson 1995), and to politi-
what John Morton (1989) understands as a form
cians. It is well-known that hunting and gathering
of modernist "totemism" (see also Sackett
people have been regularly figured, both in the
1991).
popular imagination and also in scholarly writing,
The best-known example of the latter is Bruce
as in some way "closer to nature" than modern
Chatwin's The Songlines (1987), but there are a
Western people. As Lee and Devore (1968)
surprising number of such popular representa-
famously put it, hunting and foraging comprised
tions in circulation which have become cult clas-
the human adaptation for 99.9% of our history,
and a fascination with hunters and gatherers as sics for New Age devotees. These range from
Mario Morgan's Mutant Message Down Under
the archetypal humans probably underlay the
(1994) - an amazing fabrication of a supposedly
significance that the largely ecological studies of
true
such societies had in recent anthropology, valoriz- encounter with telepathic Aborigines that
ing research on this category of societies (Asch even more amazingly held its place on the New
York Times bestseller list for 22 week - to Robert
Lawlor's Voices of the First Day (1991), which
* Questo articolo e gi6 uscito in Ways of Studies (1973-75, 1979, 1980-81).
Placemaking 2000 in MORPHY Howard and National Science Foundation (1973-75), stresses natural wisdom and something like an
FLYNT Katherine, eds. Culture, Landscape, National Institute of Mental Health (1974-unmediated relationship between Aborigines and
and the Enviroment. Oxford: Oxford Univer- the natural world. Quoting from yet another
76), National Geographical Society (1988),
sity press, pp. 72-110. National Endowment for the Humanities
mysterioso (Cowan 1989), Lawlor draws atten-
Acknowledgments. I would like to thank (1988), John Simon Guggenheim Founda-
tion to the words of Big Bill Neidjie, an Aboriginal
Faye Ginsburg for her critical reading of tion (1988), Research Challenge Fund of
man from Kakadu:
various drafts of this paper. She is not, of NYU (1991, 1993) all contributed to the
course, responsible for its flaws. I am also research. Portions of this paper draw on
indebted to Francesca Merlan for many various other published and unpublished I feel it with my body, with my blood. Feeling all
conversations and the privilege of reading work of mine, especially "Place, Identity, these trees, all this country... when the wind blows,
her manuscript. Finally, I want to thank and Exchange in a Totemic System: Nurtu- you can feel it. Same for country ... you feel it. You
Howard and Frances Morphy for their close rance and the Process of Social Reproduc-
can look, but feeling... that put you out there in
reading and editorial comments on the tion in Pintupi Society" (in J. Fajans,
open space. [Neidjie, quoted in Lawlor 1991: 237]
revisions for publication. Producing Exchange, Exchanging Products.
Research on which this paper is based was Oceania Monographs, Sydney 1992) and
done over a long period of time. Grants "What is the Business of the Balgo Busi- Chatwin's rendering of Aboriginal place-rela-
from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal ness" (unpublished ms. 1982). tions as "songlines" has been exceedingly wide
102 MYERS
in its impact. Projecting ines anything like rights of

hisownership to land (see
identif
nomadic way of Williams
being,1986, WilmsenChatwin
1989). e
the voice of his narrator and his admirable cultur- Thus, a fascination with the nature of the
al mediator Arkady supposed Aboriginal relationship to land, and a
concern over its representation has arisen in this
how each totemic ancestor, while travelling throughperiod no less because of the struggle within the
the country, was thought to have scattered a trail ofAustralian nation-state over the recognition of
words and musical notes along the line of his foot-
indigenous claims to land. This struggle dates
prints, and how these Dreaming-tracks lay over the
back to the 1960s particularly, with the Gurindji
land as 'ways' of communication between the most
far-flung tribes. [Chatwin 1988: 13]1
walkout from Wattie Creek (Hardy 1968) and
strike for land rights and the request from Yolngu
And in another passage, much cited in people in Northeast Arnhem Land that the
reviews, Arkady explains, Australian government recognize their title to their
clan land in the Gove Peninsula (Williams 1986).
In theory, at least, the whole of Australia could beThis request ended in Justice Blackburn's 1969
read as a musical score. There was hardly a rock orfinding against native title (Williams 1986) 2
creek in the country that could not or had not been which was followed by the Woodward Commis-
sung. One should perhaps visualise the Songlinession's (Woodward 1973) inquiry into Aboriginal
as a spaghetti of Iliads and Odysseys, writhing this
models of land tenure, the subsequent Aboriginal
way and that, in which every 'episode' was readable
Land Rights (NT) Act of 1976, and finally the
in terms of geology. [ibid: 60]
Mabo Decision. In this broad context, debates
over the nature and representations of "Aborigi-
The whole process of Aboriginal placemaking is
nal relationships to land" have been many (Bell
translated as poetry, naturalized in its similarity to
1983; Keen 1992, 1993; Jacobs 1996; Merlan
birds singing their territorial boundaries. Who
1991; Povinelli 1995; Weiner 1996). As the
wouldn't be taken with this image of alterity?
cases of Coronation Hill and Hindmarsh Island
Such attraction to alterity is, of course, more
than the New Age Zeitgeist of the present. demonstrate, no less than the struggles over the
meaning of now-urban places such as the Swan
Accounts by anthropologists - such as Elkin
(1964: 79-80, 1969: 95-98), Maddock (1972: 27) Brewery site in Perth, they are a matter of concern
and W.E.H. Stanner (1965)- also emphasized that beyond strictly academic theorizing.
the essential association of the Aborigines with
their land was religious, a "spiritual kinship with Dwelling or Place?
the land" that Europeans have sometimes In recent years, the question of "place" has
expressed as one in which "the land owns the received considerable attention in anthropology
people as much as the people own the land" (see (Myers 1986, 1988b; Weiner 1991; Feld and
Williams 1986). Clearly, this formulation consti-Basso 1995; Hirsch and O'Hanlon 1995; Ingold
tutes a rhetoric of contrast in which the usual West- 1996). This concern was focussed initially on the
ern/modern forms of domination over the natural significance of the contrast between different
environment - the reduction of "dwelling" to cultural understandings of the environment. In
commodity-value - are not supposed to exist. It the early 1970s, I conducted my initial research
was also, ironically, a formulation which at one with Western Desert Aboriginal people on "the
time was held by legal authorities to deny to Aborig-self and its behavioral environment", in a
perspective developed in the work of my former
teacher, A. Irving Hallowell (1955). But Hallow-
1 Anthropologists and others are aware Blackburn wrote, "As I understand it, the
fundamental truth about the aboriginals' ell's earlier work tended to emphasize culture as
that the source of Chatwin's image, if not
relationship to land is that whatever else it a kind of neo-Kantian filter or grid projected onto
his inspiration, is T.G.H. Strehlow's (1971)
magnum opus, The Songs of Central is, it is a religious relationship. This was the world. My engagement was more specifically
Australia. not in dispute. It is a particular instance of
with practices - with territorial organization and
2 Quoting Blackburn's ruling, Williams the generalization upon which I ventured
relationship to place.
before, that the physical and spiritual
argues that the finding against native title
universes are not felt as distinct". [Black- In the preliminary chapter of my monograph on
was strongly influenced by accepting the
anthropological metaphor of "spiritual burn 1971: 167, quoted in Williams 1986: Pintupi-speaking people of the Australian Western
162]
kinship with the land" to stand for the far Desert (Myers 1986a), I loosely identified these
more complex relations involved. Thus, processes as a form of construction, as a "cultur-
WAYS OF PLACE-MAKING 103
we reverse
alization of space". My this order of primacy and follow the lead
intuition in
was contrastive, of
thehunter-gatherers
need in taking to
the human condition
draw
different peoplesto be that of a being immersed
might "see" from the start,
diffe like
other creatures, in an active, practical and percep-
same "place" 3, a project akin to
tual engagement with constituents of the dwelt-in
eation of the "behavioral environm
world. This ontology of dwelling, I contend, provides
wa (1969). The untheorized assum
us with a better way of coming to grips with the
- the three-dimensional, infinit
nature of human existence than the alternative,
background against which
Western ontology distin
whose point of departure is that
("theirs" and "ours")
of a mind detached from might
the world and which has pr
expressed. My own concern
literally to formulate mor
it- to build an intentional world
in consciousness - interpretiv
book was not merely prior to any attempt at engage-
ment. [ibid: 120-121]
accounting or translation of the m
nal people found or constructed
Ingold's concern to avoid the separation of
ment, their country. Rather, I soug
mind and nature, of culture and nature, is of long
analyze the social and political pr
standing. The embrace of a Heideggerian
which places were invested wi
value. dwelling-perspective and a critique of the "world
picture" formulation in some forms of cultural
Two recent thoughtful discussions of "place"
construction are continuous with his earlier effort
have taken issue with my representation, each
to force the recognition that the practical activi-
relying on a "dwelling" perspective drawn either
ties of foraging are also distinctly human activi-
directly from (1977, 1979) or from phenomenol-
ties, and not simply a creatural infrastructure
ogy more generally, which questions the apparent
(see Ingold 1987).
primacy given to "space" over "place" (see Casey
1995; Ingold 1993, 1996). Casey, for example, Let me now express my concerns, because
criticizes the (Enlightenment) presumption of athey are not simply a rejection of phenomenology
preexisting medium of space and time withintout court. Phenomenological approaches have
which "place" is produced. Instead, he argues,had great value in the efforts of anthropologists
the phenomenologically prior experience is ofto fathom distinctive relationships to the world
distinctive and particular places, with "being-in- (see Merlan 1998, Munn 1970), especially in
place". Indeed, the "very idea of space", he challenging taken-for-granted (i.e., cultural)
insists, "is posterior to that of place, perhaps assumptions about subjectivity - as in critiques
even derived from it..." (Casey 1995: 16). of the Cartesian ego, the so-called "ghost in the
Equally concerned with the implications of the machine". Much of the current phenomenologi-
phrase "culturalization of space," Ingold (1996)cally-inspired interest concerns the experience or
takes particular issue with the primacy given tosenses of place, the dwelling in it. I have no doubt
"culture" and "construction," arguing that that some component of what places mean to
Aboriginal people can be approached in this way.
hunter-gatherers do not, as a rule, approach their One of my informants, indeed, said it: "I can close
environment as an external world of nature that has my eyes and see that green place" (where he
to be 'grasped' conceptually and appropriated grew up).
symbolically within the terms of an imposed cultur- The assumption of Ingold's argument is that
al design, as a precondition for effective action. if we "follow the lead of hunter-gatherers," the
They do not see themselves as mindful subjects
concrete activities of hunting and foraging will
having to contend with an alien world of physical
have primacy. But as Munn (1970) pointed out,
objects; indeed, the separation of mind and nature
the experiences of "country" are not innocent of
has no place in their thought and practice. [Ingold
1996: 120] social life: one of the significant concerns of
Aboriginal social practice (at least in Central
He suggests Australia) is in producing a particular mode of
orientation to the world, a kind of subjectivity.
People do not simply "experience" the world; they
3 I am indebted to Deborah Elliston for this Heidegger regarded as a modern formula- are taught - indeed, disciplined - to signify their
formulation. I also recognize that the tion (the "world picture") on a very different experiences in distinctive ways. Moreover, ritual
emphasis on "seeing" would conform to metaphysics. life is highly valued as the means through which
the problem of possibly imposing what this orientation most adequately secured - an
104 MYERS
orientation in which "what is" (to use the relations of Pintupi life (Myers 1986a, see also
language of metaphysics) is interpreted as a sign Myers 1988b). Moreover, by the particular focus
of prior sentient, ancestral activity. Experience, they
or give to an individualized subjective experi-
knowledge of the world, is therefore in partence, an their discussions offer inadequate atten-
effect of power. Furthermore, the insistence tion on to the social mediation of "place" - of
the "activities of hunting and gathering" has the "place" as something already constituted in
danger of reproducing one of the most problem- social relations. What is proposed in my
atic assumptions of ecological anthropology's approach is not the construction of "pure
emphasis on "the band" (Myers 1988a) - name- culture". It is, rather, a dialectical model of
ly, ignoring the significance of what are, perhapsconstruction that I identify more with activity theo-
to the hunter-gatherers themselves, the more ry and Vygotsky (1962, 1978) or Piagetian
enduring, broader social categories and spatial
notions of construction (see Turner 1973) - a
aggregates which are brought into being at any construction that emphasizes operations and
particular place. practices that mediate between a subject and
There remains, therefore, a hint of primitivismthe world. I find these models to be most produc-
in Ingold's provision of primacy to hunting and tive for understanding how environment is consti-
gathering as activities defining the experiencetuted of socially. In contrast, the reliance of a
place. This is my second concern. Phenomenolo- "dwelling" perspective on the primacy of percep-
gy also has a history, in Western European tion in the constitution of place seems problem-
responses to rationality: one should be wary of a atic to me, insofar as sociopolitical mediation is
deployment of "dwelling" that runs along lines ignored at all levels. The model of place-constitu-
that parallel the profound primitivist separation tion we are left to ponder assumes a singular
between modern/pre-modern, alienated/unalien- existential subject of perception - not the Vygot-
ated that occupied Heidegger's search for Being skyian subject who is himself or herself also
as much as our New Age contemporaries. constructed out of activities, nor even the subject
To be fair, it is not entirely clear to me how whose perception is guided by the instruction or
serious might be the deeper differences between tutelage that Vygotsky's "zone of proximal devel-
Casey and Ingold's invocations of "dwelling" and opment" (1978) allowed.
my account and those of others. Indeed, I fully Indeed, Vygotsky is famous for this emphasis
endorse Ingold's formulation that it is through on socially mediated learning. Ingold attempts to
dwelling in a landscape, through the incorporation forestall the objection that he has "taken no
of its features into a pattern of everyday activi- account of that vital component of knowledge
ties, that it becomes home to hunters and gath- that comes to people through their instruction in
erers (1991: 16). traditional lore" (1996: 142). But nevertheless I
At its most productive, Ingold's argument is find his treatment of knowledge to be problemat-
against the separation of "the activities of hunting ic. While I never claimed such knowledge should
and gathering, on the one hand, and singing, story- be understood as "maps" in the direct sense, I
telling, and the narration of myth, on the other" do believe that my ethnography supports the view
within the terms of "a dichotomy between the that stories, songs, designs, and the like provide
material and the mental, between ecological inter-components of an "inner representation" of the
actions in nature and cultural constructions of country, instructing learners what to find. These
nature" (1996: 144). He argues against a vieware of what one means by representations: under-
the landscape as "culturalized space [which]
standings objectified and transmitted through a
range of activities of kinship and social relations.
entails the naturalization of hunting and gathering.
[In this view] only as represented in thought [i.e., My
a principal concern is that the "dwelling"
mind detached from the world] is the environmentapproach, while potentially able to envisage the
drawn into the human world of persons" (Ibid).significance of activity, tends to suggest that
As applied to what I wrote, however, these such experience is largely unmediated by social
phenomenological critiques selectively concern processes of the sort that have occupied my
only the most descriptive of the chapters. Theyresearch.
do Perhaps on the general significance of
not address my analysis of the processes of "activity" we ultimately agree, although the only
projection, objectification, or construction which
activities Ingold is concerned to mention are
occur, in my view, within and through the social
those of hunting and gathering as concrete labor.
However, named ethnographicplaces,

knowledge of the Aboriginalor
relation "cou
"camp," "country", "place"), are not only the to place? I now draw in more detail on my own
environment of experience; they are also objecti- research into ways "place" is socially produced
fications of previous experience and process. by contemporary Aboriginal people.
Such places and their value, I have argued, are The focus of permissible Aboriginal land
also brought into being as objects of exchangerights, for at least the past two decades and still
(both hierarchical and equal) between social in the popular imagination, emphasized the elab-
actors and as components of the socialization of
orate objectifications of people's relations to land
persons. These processes may select or define in ritual and ritual knowledge, known as The
as socially valuable particular dimensions of Dreaming (see below). This was taken as
places. Generally speaking, I have taken the posi- "unchanging tradition," divorced from the place-
tion that writers about Aboriginal societies - asmaking practices - based on an attitude to every-
well as other hunter-gatherers - have adopted anday dwelling - in which it was constituted and
overly naturalistic position on the role of reified. Ritual and ritual knowledge were turned
place/space/country, as territory, life-space,into or apparently autonomous forms.
dwelling. My own work emphasizes not, as Casey Ingold draws attention to the concrete activi-
and Ingold each would appear to say, the "cultur- ties of hunting and gathering as the relevant foun-
alization of space" or cultural construction - asdation a of placemaking. No doubt such activities
projection of a culture's meanings onto un-can come to carry the weight of such determina-
marked, objective space4. Rather, I have insisted tion, and they surely have been neglected ethno-
that place enters into Aboriginal social life incentrically
a as simply the material basis of human
fashion similar to other material forms, mediated activity. But there is reason to believe that the
by social action, as a potential formulation ofseparation of these activities from others and an
similarity and difference, a token of identity and emphasis on their phenomenological priority is
exchange. itself ethnocentric. Over the last ten years, my
In other words, the social mediation of place work, along with that of Francesca Merlan (1998),
is always already constituted in social relations in Elizabeth Povinelli (1995), and Sylvie Poirier
Aboriginal societies of this kind. I want to argue (1995) has proceeded from the opposite direc-
that the danger of ignoring such mediation is not tion to that taken by Ingold and has insisted on
simply a theoretical one. In Australia, as in other the continuity between the more spectacular ritu-
settings for indigenous peoples, rights to land are al objectifications (of collective ritual in relation to
premised on theories and understandings of land and ancestors) and the everyday practices of
cultural "difference", particularly in regard to living, residing, dying on the land that might be
place-making. Thus, my central concern is less to called "dwelling" as activities through which
engage in academic debate per se and more to place becomes a significant bearer of social iden-
clarify what are the emerging understandings tity. The Pintupi example, as I will show, did
about the Aboriginal productions of "place" and demonstrate this continuity of related practices
what their consequences are. Such understand- between the everyday social experiences of band
ings are the bases on which claims to land and life and the objectifications of ownership.
culture are being debated and decided (see, for Because the relationships are discerned among
example, Brunton 1992, 1996; Keen 1992, people who were still socialized in conditions of
1993; Merlan 1991; Myers 1986b; Weiner life strongly connected to the past, the apparent
1996; Wilmsen 1989). The nature of Aboriginalcoherence of these practices makes it more diffi-
culture and the "nature" produced in Aboriginal cult for readers to disentangle the processes and
social life are serious issues in contemporary practices through which definitions of place and
politics. person are constituted, as Ingold and Casey
What, then, is the import of contemporary certainly failed to do. Among Aboriginal people in
situations less typically regarded as "authentic,"
4 I have described an example of a case ofjudgment from the older men who are the various of these processes and practices them-
place-making in my monograph (Myers"custodians" of the place. The consequentselves have come to be central in the making and
1986a: 64) in which two men discover andetermination must be seen as a negotia- remaking of place and people's identities.
odd formation. They attempt to fit it intotion of their positions and relationships to
the known narrative of mythological eventseach other.
in the area but must await an authoritative
106 MYERS
The entirety
Dreaming, encompasses the travels of ancestors
Knowledge, Pla
My research through a Pintupi
with great number of placesAborigi
and many cere-
Australia beganmonies, ina Dreaming-track
1973. links It several
has localized ta
number of settlements and homeland communities. groups. It joins the groups at one level and differ-
The vital conception of Aboriginal life, here asentiates them within it. Because initiation (of
in so many other regions, is The Dreaming (see men) is necessary both to gain a wife and to gain
Stanner 1956), constituting the very framework access to the religious knowledge which defines
of Aboriginal society. Most Aboriginal ceremony is adulthood, access to religious knowledge (and its
"totemic" or (more suitably), in Strehlow's (1970)distribution) structures the defining social rela-
terms, "land-based". Derived from the mytholog-tionships of Pintupi social life - that is, the rela-
ical period - The Dreaming - in which powerfultionship of young men to old men and of women
ancestral beings gave the world its shape and to men -just as it structures the relationships of
meaning, Aboriginal ceremonies both re-enact locality. However, the meaning of these places,
the events of The Dreaming and come from it their value, must be understood as constructed-
(thus, their authenticity). Aborigines say that in not by the application of some pure cultural
performing the ceremonies they merely "follow up model to blank nature, to which Ingold rightly
The Dreaming" (Stanner 1956), sometimes objects - but in activities that constitute relation-
ships within a system of social life that structures
called "the Law" Knowledge is restricted, and the
difference and similarity among persons, a
ceremonies are revelatory: they present the story
system of practices for which "land" is one medi-
of what happened at a particular place and how it
shaped the geography there. Thus, they make um. It is the neglect of such social processes as
available knowledge of fundamentally importantcentral to the production of value in place to
and invisible events and structures. which I object in the over-emphasis on "dwelling".
Almost invariably, Pintupi discussions of
Pintupi Practices/Activities of Place:
country are punctuated by descriptions of what
happened in The Dreaming. Every significant Exchange
feature is held to result from Dreaming events.
Pintupi Aborigines traditionally occupied an
Yumarinya, for example, means "wife's mother-
arid region south of Lake MacKay with an average
place". The yumari of this case is the mother-in-
yearly rainfall of 5-10 inches, a few permanent
law of a mythological Old Man, who travelled west
and semi-permanent waterholes, and significant
from the Henty Hills, and who copulated with her
seasonal variation of resources. (When I began
at this place. Rock outcroppings, a rockhole, and
studying them in 1973, they lived sedentarily in a
various markings within a few hundred yards are
small outstation near Papunya, where they had
interpreted as the result of the illicit actions of the
recently been settled.) To understand "place"
mythological beings. The name signifies here a
among the Pintupi, we must begin with how it is
specific feature of the event, the involvement of
lived in bands, among those who share a camp.
the Old Man and his mother-in-law.
Pintupi live in a material world of practices that
These kinds of stories and the places they must produce itself with the resources of its envi-
endow or describe are owned by particular groups
ronment but also reproduce the relations of
and controlled by men (and women) who have the
production. The coordination of these practices,
right to display the ceremony. Where a myth in its
in kinship, involves the production of social
persons - imaged in the Pintupi metaphor of
I By identity here I do not mean a person's "nurturance"
tion to all others, although they may be: as or "looking after" (kanyininpa).
total or integrated conception of himself orI have shown in more extensive presenta-
Band sizes varied from 10-25 persons during
herself. First, I am using the term to refer to tion of the Pintupi case elsewhere (Myers
bases for (or markers of) self-differentiation
most of the year. As I have shown previously
1986a), these markers may constitute a
and self-relationship. While these markersbasis for differentiating oneself from others (Myers 1982b, 1986a, 1988b), an individual-
do not need to be "natural species", L6vi- in some contexts but for expressing rela- oriented approach to these groupings, based on
Strauss (1962, 1966) is correct to point outtionship with different others in other the indigenous concept of "one countryman", is
that the culturally recognized bases for clas-
contexts. Finally, the degree to which any of necessary insofar as society was potentially
sification do typically find their purchase these multiple, particular bases are synthe-
outside of human social relations them-
boundary-less, with individual networks and ritu-
sized into more context-independent formu-
lations of selfhood and society is a problem al links extending beyond any definable group.
selves. Second, I do not mean to say that
these identities are necessarily permanent
for analysis and comparison. Individuals did not live entirely in one place or with
or enduring dimensions of a person's rela- a single set of people, even during the course of
a year, much through less a lifetime.

the landscape for purposes of their own,R
temporary residential saw evidence of other people nearby, went to
groups
the countryside visit, travelled with them for awhile, and then a
as individuals
ed for varying lengths
returned of
to their own countries. tim
These everyday
ments, people socialhunted
realities are expressed inand
the conceptsgaI
seeds, shared food, performed ceremonies, gloss as "country" (ngurra) and "one country-
eloped, bore children, fought, died, and so on.man" (ngurra kutjungurrara). Ngurra is polysemic,
Such activities came to be associated or memo- as "camp" or "country". A person's "one coun-
rialized - for the actors and their relatives - in the
trymen" are those with whom he regularly camps
places they occurred, and passage or residence (or can expect to camp), varying probably with
through these areas invariably recalls the each individual. The concept is egocentric, with
happenings. In this way, through human action, each person's set being unique to them, includ-
places acquire - or "gather" - meanings from ing many who did not always live with the same
lived experiences. residential group. These are people, one can say,
Bands constitute a framework of social life, with whom one "used to travel".
but they are not the simple defining units of anyThese are people with whom a fundamental
person's life. In the several life histories I collect-
identity is held to exist. The critical condition for
ed people demonstrated themselves to have trav- participating in a band - that is, for residing in a
eled widely, not confining themselves to a single "camp" and taking part in the relations of produc-
band's area. They moved, instead, to and through tion - is recognition of the others as walytja. This
areas which they ascribed notionally to different term, which can be glossed as "relatives" or
named groups of people - such as "the people
"kin," is associated with the meaning "one's
from X place". Yet the composition of these
own" and can designate the reflexive "oneself"
coresidential groups was itself, concomitantly,
(as in nyininpa walytja, he is sitting by himself, or
variable and fluctuating. Finally, an individual, like
palyarnu walytjalu, he made it himself). The
my informants Wuta Wuta Tjangala or Shorty concept formulates kinship as the inclusion into
Lungkarta, would consider all the people with
one's own identity of those with whom one coop-
whom he regularly camped - people who might
erates 5. Those with whom one lives, with whom
view themselves as focussed in different bands
one shares a place, are kin.
- to be his "one countryman" (ngurra kutjungur-
Equivalent exchange takes place regularly
rara, "from one camp").
between those who live together in the temporary
It is important to stress that there were regu-
residential groups that have been known to
larities in movements and gatherings - around
anthropologists as "bands". Those who live
the exploitation of seasonal items and resources
together in one place, a "camp," must "help each
- and there are constraints on the movement of
other". This means that, upon demand at least,
individuals and groups. But there is little useful-
coresidents should be willing to give food, cloth-
ness here to the idea of a band as a group of
ing, and other material items or, as the case may
definable individuals travelling together in a year-
be now, provide transportation or labor6. In
ly round from place to place. People moved
Pintupi understanding, the distribution of valued
objects and services reflects and creates relat-
6 The most ritually marked form of people may threaten violence in assertion edness. Thus, they insist, those who live - or
exchange is the distribution of large game of their relationship or move away in recog- have regularly lived - together, those who have
(kangaroos, emu, etc.) from men's hunting. nition of its lack.
shared a camp (ngurra, or a place) are walytja,
Appropriately cooked by someone other 8 It should be clear, then, that I advocate
which we can translate as "relatives" or "kin".
than the hunter, parts of the meat are given a return to a focus on the constitutive
to those other members of the residential
nature of exchange in sociality - as
They must help each other, and such help, once
group to whom the hunter has obligations given, should be reciprocated 7. Conversely, one
Mauss's (1979) original work on seasonal
and with whom he feels himself to be close-
variations among the Eskimo brilliantly becomes walytja through participating in such
ly related. Women's production (small suggested - with a recognition of the dimensions of residential life. Shared identity
game, vegetable foods) is also exchanged, particular (i.e., varying) political problemat-
derives from repeated exchange, shared concern
although somewhat less formally than is the ics of life in small-scale societies. Exami-
case for large game. and help.
nation of cycles of exchange in such soci-
7 Those who fail to reciprocate or neglect eties usually reveals a variety of distinctive Of course, the relations - the identity - with
their campmates are said to be "munuwa- positions, particularities of identity, that
those from "far away" whom one might visit must
lytja", not kin. Faced with such neglect, are defined through exchange. One should
be sustained, and co-presence cannot be main-
108 MYERS
tained8. Regular visiting Land as Identity is one such

through this coresidence individua
What might be called "ownership" for the
"countryman" and Pintupi consists primarily in controlstatus
"relative" over the
one band. These give them the right
stories, objects, and rituals associated with the
the group, in its area. Such bands
mythological ancestors of The Dreaming at a partic-
those in which relatives of one's g
ular place. Access to knowledge of these esoteri-
resided. Moreover, as we will see,
ca and the creative essence they contain is restrict-
dence in an area also gives one a cla
ed, and one can acquire it only through instruction
cation with - and potentially to "own
by those who have previously acquired it. Thus,
"country" (ngurra), the named pl
such rights exist only where they are accepted by
lives. I refer to this process as a tra
others, and the possession of such rights as
residence into ownership, of every
recognized by others, called "holding" a country, is
into identification, an objectification
the product of other people's acceptance of
"country".
shared identity with a claimant. I stress here that
Elsewhere in Australia, Aboriginal people have
land ownership is an embedded index of process-
articulately specified this potential of "sitting on
es of exchange and negotiation of identity.
the land" as a form of labor invested in it, a
The bases for claiming such identities and
mingling of substance (Povinelli 1995). Be that
rights are various. In Pintupi culture there is a range
as it may, in the case of Pintupi practice, the key
of relationships a person can claim or assert
issue is gaining acceptance by others of one's
between himself or herself and a place, all consti-
claim of identification, and this is where
tuting an identification with a country as one's
exchange and other processes in the formation of
"own".These include one's own conception at a
social identity are critical.
place or at a place on the same mythological track
as a place in question (i.e., coming from the partic-
think especially here of identity and ous media allow Pintupi to extend ular
this Dreaming), as well as the conception or death
exchange as media for sustaining the polit- model of kinship as shared identity beyond
of father, mother, and grandparent. Residence
ical relations of social life in material condi-
the immediate relations of the camp, may,ofas I have said, also provide a basis for claim.
tions that combine aggregation with disper- existential co-presence. In other words,
These forms of identification provide the cultural
sal. The relationships established through beyond the temporary residential bands,
these identities and their modulations equivalent exchange also constitutesbasis
regu-for ownership of "country" (ngurra)o0.
mediate contradictions imposed by lar thesocial relationships - culturally Through
under- this logic individuals can and do have
requirement of social action's being orga- stood in the practice of "exchanging"claims to more than one country.
nized both immediately, i.e., at the face-to-
women between groups of kin as requiring With each significant place, then, a group of
face level, as well as in relation to others
reciprocity and resulting in a greater sense
individuals can affiliate, and the composition of
not immediately present, i.e., in its spatial
of kinship or shared identity. Here espe-
cially, the expectation of exchange
and temporal displacements. Surely, there the as
group may differ for each place considered.
are many specific forms of the contradic-
ngaparrku ("level," "back and forth", Manyorpeople may claim to identify with a place,
tions as well as mediations of them. "one thing against another") holds. That but only
is, a portion of these are usually said to
Nonetheless, the various forms of equivalence and return constitute the "hold" a country and to control its related rituals.
exchange that are already well-document-necessary conditions for defining the rela-
These primary custodians are the ones who must
ed in some of these societies - e.g., !Kung
tionship. The "giving" of spears, or shields,
marriage, name transmission, rights or of
sacred objects provides another means decide whether to teach an individual about it,
land tenure, and hxaro (Lee 1984, Wilm- of establishing and sustaining relation- and they favor close relatives, those with whom
sen 1989); the complex reorganizations ofwith people who are not, temporarily
ships they have had regular ties of equivalent or hierar-
Central Eskimo sexuality, names and food-
or otherwise, coresident. Such gifts, it is chical exchange. Thus, groups are constituted
sharing as systems defining distinctive understood, are to be reciprocated. If not
essentially in the form of descending kindreds of
social forms in summer and winter (Maussreciprocated, those who have delayed are
1979) - must be understood as differenti-
said "to have trouble". persons who have primary claims to sites, but the
ating and recombining identities into 10 Since knowledge and control of country exercise of continuing exchange ("giving") is
broader systems of social action. At the essential in producing this organizational form.
are already in the hands of "owners" (my
same time, the media through which these gloss for the Pintupi term ngurrakartu refer-
The process is one in which cooperative ties
contradictions are objectified - such as ring particularly to custodians of named
land as "place" or words as "names" -
among frequent coresidents (i.e., "those from
place), converting claims to an interest in
acquire value by their position in such one camp") may be transformed into a more
a named place requires convincing the
processes. enduring one. To summarize, one gets "country"
owners to include one in knowledge and
9 There is another dimension of the from those who "held" one as a child (for details,
prob- One's identification with a country
activity.
lem of distance and shared identity, butbe
must see Myers 1986a: 127-58). "Country" is objecti-
I actualized and accepted by others
cannot discuss it here. I just note that vari- a process of negotiation.
through fied as the shared identity of a distinctive set of
ceremony, in a sense, distant co-owners. It

kin - relatives, or as they are known, "one coun-
trymen". extends a degree of identity to them as "one
One's identification with a named place is, in countrymen" (those who hold a place collective-
this sense, at once a defining of who one is and ly), signifying those who have recognized each
at the same time a statement of shared identity other by giving their most valued items of
with others. People's joint relationship through exchange into the other's holding. Being an
time to a named place represents an aspect of an owner, having an identity with "country," places
identity they share, however limited. The process one in a position to participate equally with other
through which membership is established is fully adult persons, in offering ceremonial roles to
precisely one in which people attempt to convince others (as part of an exchange) and sharing rights
others that they already are related. Each named in ritual paraphernalia.
place, then, commemorates, records, or objecti-
fies past and present achieved relations of Replacement
shared identity among participants. Each place, This kind of giving should be distinguished
however, represents a different node of relations, from the revelation of ceremonies to young men
and thus one's identification with each named who are not yet themselves fully initiated, and are
place specifies a particular dimension of identity
therefore not fully equal. The focus on "inheri-
shared with others, although not the entirety tance"of and "rights" does not capture the whole
one's identity. The ultimate expression of this process. From the Pintupi point of view, the
principle whereby shared identity among partici-
emphasis in these ceremonies is not just on
pants is projected out into the object worldgetting
(and rights, but as much on the social produc-
seen as deriving from it) is the way Pintupi verbal-
tion of persons who can "hold" the country. That
ly extend identification with a place, describing
is, Pintupi men and women are concerned with
some important site as "belonging to everybody, initiating young men and teaching men and
whole family", or, as they say alternatively,women"one the ritual knowledge necessary to look
country". In reverse, one may read this as repre-
after the country. The Pintupi image of social
senting their sense of the Pintupi - people with no
continuity is effectively one in which "country" as
distinctive organization as a political entity an- object
as is passed down - "given" - from gener-
"all related" (walytja tjurta). For the Pintupi,ation
landto generation. They regard this "giving" as
is a sign that can carry expressions of identity and
a contribution to the substance and identity of the
difference, even integrating these into complex recipient, a kind of transmission of one genera-
regional systems. tion's (or person's) identity to the next. But this
"Holding a country" (kanyininpa ngurra) is more than just a passing on of "identity". It is
constitutes an important, perhaps the primary,
passing down, as well, of transformative power or
dimension of enacting one's identity. Recognized
agency, the wherewithal to socialize the next
identification with named places and the rights to
generation ", and to exchange (or act) - to estab-
related ceremonies, stories, and designs provide
lish relations with people from far away - within
opportunities for a person to be the organizer
theirofown generation. People who "hold the coun-
a significant event and the focus of attention.
try" contain the generative principles of social
Thus, the performance of myth-based cere- reproduction, principles perceived as external to
monies - ritual re-enactments of The Dreaming
humanat life itself. In the Pintupi view, by learning
a place - by one group of landowners for others
about The Dreaming and seeing the rituals, one's
constitutes yet another form of "giving" (yungin-
very being is altered. People become, Pintupi say,
pa) between people (both men and women) "different"
who and stronger.
are equivalent to each other. Among men, whose As recipients become owners of particular
case I know best, when such ceremonies are sites, taking on an identity they share with others,
displayed for those who are themselves fully initi-
they have also, as it were, acquired an obligation,
ated, it is expected that the people who reveala responsibility that they can repay only by teach-
ing the next generation. Pintupi stress that men
and give their own ceremony - and thus, their own
"countries" or "places" - will eventually be recip-
must hold the Law and pass it on. As men are enor-
rocated with a display from those to whom they
11 I owe the recognition of mously concerned to pass on their knowledge and
the importance of this have "given". As an element in a cycle of identification with places to their "sons" and
distinction to Jane Fajans. exchange, the display makes those who see the
"sister's sons", ritual or landowning groups effec-
110 MYERS
tively represent er'sthose

son), Morris (own who previou
son), and Hillary (sister's
"held" and raisedson). up (that
Two other older men is,
opposed the
this, sayingchi
from one camp") they and
were afraid to whom
the young men would use the the
"give" knowledgesorcery ofspells their country.
from this place when they were
"Country" can be contrasted with other drunk. Keen for knowledge of his country, Ronnie
personal objects, which are dispersed at death framed his objections in a noteworthy fashion: "All
and not allowed to carry the deceased's identity right," he said, "then nobody will ever know about
forward in time. Men particularly strive to pass on
that place when you all die. If people travel around
to their successors an identity formulated out here, they'll just go up and down this road
through ties to named places. My friend Shorty only". In other words, his irony suggested, the
Lungkarta, now deceased, put pressure on his place would be lost. Wuta Wuta hoped to establish
son Donald to attend his ceremonies and to an outstation near the place where his father had
learn, so that he could "pass on" this country.died. His brothers, he told me, were nearly dead;
What such fathers pass on, or transmit, only in this
he was still strong enough - and he was
way is not personal property that they have creat- - to "give the country, katjapirtilu witin-
concerned
ed or accumulated themselves, but an identity
tjaku," for these descendants to hold. This would
that is already objectified in the land. Recipients
constitute for them a particular identity as holders
acquire an identity with a named place that has
of the country.
pre-existing relationships with other named Dick Kimber has recorded how a few years
places on its Dreaming track. later Wuta Wuta took some of his "daughters" to
Named places function as formulations of a similar site, which I believe was his own Dream-
identity so that personal relationships of "nurtu-
ing place, Ngurrapalangu, whose claypan is a
rance" and "equivalence" (in shared identity) are
source of the seed-bearing mungilpa plant.
objectified through time. Elders consciously While they were not allowed to see in detail
attempt to transmit their identity through time by
the most sacred/secret of the properties of the
creating the same identity in others, "replacing" site, Wuta Wuta revealed to them where these
themselves (Weiner 1980) through time as "hold-
were to be found, so that - one presumes - they
ers" of country. One can see the process of
could pass on such knowledge to appropriate
replacement as a transmission of identity in
male kin (see Kimber 1990: 7)12.
which men give their country for their katja (son's
Just as in this example, the people most like-
or sister's sons) to "grab".
ly to replace seniors are those who were, as chil-
The best example I have of this is a trip I made
dren, "held" by them. Ultimately, seniors achieve
to the Gibson Desert with an older man, the
their most significant status in this hierarchical
famous painter Wuta Wuta Tjangala, and several
exchange, just as they take on this position of
others. During the travel, Wuta Wuta decided he
"holding" others. In the production of social
wanted to take us all to see an important place to
persons, they give to younger men the capacity to
the north, to nintintjaku ("show" or "teach") his
establish extensive relations of equivalent
katja (a term that can mean both "son" and
exchange with each other and to become holders
"sister's son"). By this, he included Ronnie (broth-
themselves. Such identification with place is a
form of "inalienable wealth" (Weiner 1992). One
However by showing the women the site can take part in exchanges without really losing it.
12 Kimber writes: "Uta Uta directed me to
a site which had never previously beenand the stone Uta Uta was ensuring that, When one dies, these inalienable possessions,
visited by the three women who were within the event of his death and that of the with which one has come to be associated in the
us. They were ordered to sit a short other few senior men of authority who
course of one's life, remain in the landscape.
distance away and observe, and also to knew the location, there were sufficient
take care of the children. Uta Uta then people who could pass on the general The people to whom one contributed by "growing
knowledge to the correct men of the next them up" and by teaching are those able and
asked me to assist him to dig in the sand
until we found an object. Soon enoughgeneration.
we These men would already obligated to carry on the responsibility for this
had uncovered it and cleared away know all the secret-sacred men's details, but country. This is the identity that endures and is
sand. The women and children could see not necessarily the locality. As Uta Uta
reproduced in place.
its general shape and the women were explained, the old days of extensive 'foot-
required to remember the site, but couldwalking' were over, but without an Let me provide one extended illustration,
not see close details of the markings adequate
on motor vehicle of his own, he was since it is in "practice" that place gains meaning
this unusually shaped stone, know its unable to instruct his sons in all aspects of
and value. For simplicity, I will stick primarily to
name or learn the songs of association. his own country". [Kimber 1990: 7-8]
the case of a single individual, Wuta Wuta Tjan-
gala, and thein the east. These were places to which he regu-
significance
Yumarinya larlyor
- traveled, "Mother-i
"up and down" along the plain.
hole is one of
They were the"one country" places
in respect to his resi- w
to live, priordentialtohabits; heleaving
"sat" (camped) there. Marriageth
in 1956. It was filled
exchanges reinforced some of these with
- so that his
rience, of life historical
sister's daughter was married to a man from the e
important toPollock Hills. He can paint these designs and
him.
So, how did he
"hold" come
that country to
in ceremony because thesebe
place (and not
rights of only
identification werewith
given to him by histh
father was not from
one countrymen, this
recognizing in this manner their
from the south, from
relationship. The shared the
identity is objectified in
known as Yawalyurrunya
their mutual identification with the place and
place"). Yumari
places. was part o
try," her In ritual exchange,
ngurra. and in controlling
His fathe their
he married her, and
sons for initiation and daughtershe co
for marriage,
north, nearWuta Yumarinya
Wuta, Minpuru, and other brothers acted as w
common practice a group - performing forceremoniesaas "brothers".
peri
father subsequently The place Yumarinya is a vehicledied
of their shared a
Yumarinya, identity, and is
as "sons" of thenow kn
group of fathers. In
place of burial. Wuta Wuta's mother was terms of my argument, his identification with
conceived near to Yumarinya, which means Yumarinya
that (and other places) provides Wuta
her Dreaming is identified with the place - thus,
Wuta with something he can exchange with other
providing a significant basis to claim ownership.
men - and in this sense, undergirds his identity
Wuta Wuta himself had his conception dream- as an autonomous, equal man. He probably
ing (i.e., was conceived through the essence ofacquired
the the knowledge necessary to do so post-
Dreaming at) at Ngurrapalangunya, a place asso- initiation, as the film Pintupi Revisit Yumari
(Sandall 1969) shows to be the case for some of
ciated with the activities of Two (ancestral) Women
who were heading for Lake Mackay to the north, his "brother's sons".
but who were frightened at this site - a hill andWuta Wuta was associated with a range of
claypans - by the Old Man on his way to Yumari. places through the circumstances, experiences, of
his life. This relationship is not necessarily a
According to Pintupi understanding, these figures
phenomenological
left Wuta Wuta behind, hiding in a cave, from which expression of dwelling in a
he was eventually conceived. Wuta Wuta's older
place, although this may be a basis for some of his
brother, Minpuru, was conceived at Yawarrankun-
claims (residence, conception). The larger process
in which these dwellings take place suggest that
ya, a site identified with yet another Dreaming story
place gains its significance through the value
(of Two Boys), to the west of Yumarinya. Yumarinya
is tied in to places east and west, through sharing
making social processes of identity production,
in the creative activities of this Old Man and his
processes of kinship in the Pintupi sense, mediat-
travels: one Dreaming. ed by exchange. All of these associations to place
Both men claim Yumarinya through theirare objectifications, projections through time, of
(shared) mother and her father (Wuta Wutavarious relations of shared identity.
Tjapanangka) and through their own father, who One's country is a projection - in a sense - of
is buried in the area, as well as through concep-
one's movements and social relations, of
tion. Wuta Wuta also claims links to the south,kinship, converted to identity with place. "Resi-
through his father, at Yawalyurrunya in his dence" or dwelling - living on the land, at a place
father's country, which were recognized by his
- is very important in establishing one's identity
relatives there because he had been able to with it and its meaning for one. But this fact is
maintain his ties. He activated these ties and his socially significant by virtue of a discursive
valorization in making claims, as an acceptable
identification with that place by marrying a woman
from the southern area and moving there forbasis a of identity. In fact, if one doesn't live with
while - that is, through exchange. those from the place or in the area regularly, one
Wuta Wuta also had important rights to the loses one's basis of claim: one is said to have
Pollock Hills in the west and also to Tjitururrnga
"nothing to do". It is woven phenomenologicall
112 MYERS
into the experiences place and space"of (ibid.: kinship

2). Rather, "Aboriginal
an
tity with other understandings residents. do not recognise Ifthe cosmos
one as c
through residence, exchange and so on, one a unified arena in which events occur; one cannot
can't be a one-countryman or kin - and one's speak of space of any kind in the singular. The
identification loses social recognition. basic and only unit of Aboriginal cosmic structure
Let me try to summarize. I have delineated is the place" (ibid.: 29). "The basic totemic asser-
three fundamental aspects to the significance of tion is that all Lawful existence emerges from the
"country" or place as a cultural entity, all given being of place... (ibid.: 35)
form in processes of exchange. While place may have paradigmatic status in
1. With its origin in the Dreaming, "country" Swain's conception as well as my own (and
constitutes a valued form of knowledge that is others), I find it difficult on theoretical grounds
esoteric, transmitted (or as the Pintupi say, to grant its centrality to something like a
"given") to younger men, but restricted in access.culture's philosophical orientation - which
2. At the same time, "country" constitutes Swain does. To do so is to objectify "culture", to
an object of exchange among equal men (and give - as Terry Turner (1980) once put it - the
women). For the Pintupi, "country" provides anproducts of human activity an autonomous exis-
embodiment of identity that allows for the perfor-tence and to substitute them for the original
mance of autonomy in exchange13. actors and their purposes as the objects of
3. Finally, it is important to remember thattheoretical and political concern. Recent consid-
named place or "country" is produced as an erations of Aboriginal notions of "place" in the
objectification of the transient formations of Australian political arena argue cogently for the
"camps", as an iconic representation of shared danger of separating "what are in fact the prod-
identity that depends on its indexical relations
ucts of human activity (e.g., society, culture)
with the everyday practices of coresidence andfrom the actors who produce them and the
exchange.
purposes for which they go to the trouble to do
This is related to a phenomenology. My so" (Turner 1980: 17). Thus, I wish to reiterate
concern is to show that the identities produced as
here the embeddedness of such constructs
an experience of mutual caring among residents of
within social action, stressing - in ways that
transient "camps" (ngurra) are transformed into or
fear Ingold (1996) has not - both terms of th
objectified as relations to enduring "countries"
pair. The subject of place-experience is not pr
(ngurra) as dreamings, and these objectificationsto the social formation of what is to be
mediate social relations within a region. But there
perceived. Following Turner (1979, 1980
is an emergent dimension that enters experience.
have characterized the sociocultural system
Such "countries" are meaningful to Pintupi cultur-
Pintupi life as organized towards the produ
al subjects as possessing the potential of
of social persons.
exchangeability. My concern is, therefore, to show
Pintupi understandings of kinship repr
that places acquire significance - or value - in
their society as a structure for the product
these social relations, and that a Pintupi cultural
social persons, a structure formulated out o
"space" in the sense of a synthesis of specific
cultural organization of significant acts of sh
place-relations might be shown to emerge.
exchange, and protection. In Pintupi social
The Social and Theoretical Location of Place the culturally defined course for the product
persons - the formation of significant iden
Central to my argument is a position enunci-
provides the structure that dominates the h
ated by Tony Swain in his book, A Place for
levels of the social system, and such produ
Strangers (1993), concerning what one might call
is defined by two sorts of exchange. Interg
the fundamentality of place in Aboriginal
tional, hierarchical exchange and intrage
constructions of being. As Swain puts it, "Aborig-
tional, equivalent exchange (see below) are
ines themselves do not, or at least once did not,
essential to and embedded in a larger cycle
understand their being in terms of time, but of
process of social reproduction through which
vidual persons acquire an identity. Such cyc
13 The possibility of handling "country"
forms in social action constitute "kinship".
of autonomy through exchange,
this way stems from initiation, which also and fighting - indicatingMy
marriage the interpretation gives great weight to
underpins the possibility of two other basic
importance of treating "country" as a sign.
significance of the Pintupi concept of kany
- which I translate
a reflexive byproduct
partially
of its use to reproduce the a
the formation
family. of identity
appears that theAt this pointcritical
in the hierarchy of social process-proc
duction of Pintupi
es, there is a changesocialin the form of social life
extensive levels, are
consciousness from those
the viewpoint of actors. o
persons. This Relations activity and processes are nointegra
longer repre-
people with "looking sented in cultural terms as after"
products of deliberate (o
places that contain social activity. "Higherthe vital
level processes, the repro-
ty of human beings. duction of which is not directly under social
To understand how "place" conceivably control, tend to be represented not as artifacts of
figures within such a system, let me sketch anhuman activity but as products of natural forces
approach to its situation in social consciousnessor supernatural agencies" (ibid.: 32)'". What are
and its location in something we might call theemergent properties of social action are
"environment" - perceived to be outside of socialdiscerned as invariant, natural. It is regarded as
production, but in fact its product. In this view,beyond the scope of social agency to create or
which I adopt from Turner (1980)14, social struc-change these processes which, Turner says, are
tures are to be seen as the hierarchical organi-
zation of productive activities. Here, the upper not seen as interdependent parts of a system of
levels consist of reproductive processes which social relations and activities, but rather as norma-
subsume productive processes as lower levels or tive entities with a reality of their own independent of
components. Turner once discussed the rela- the pattern of social relations that results from their
enactment. They are objectified or reified, that is,
tionship of these levels in Piagetian terms, as
considered as things-in-themselves that constrain
one of "coordination", in which the higher level
behavior but are not constrained by it. [ibid.: 32]
structurally expresses the commonalities of activ-
ities at the lower level.
Thus, Turner is interested in how social
Turner points out as well that such hierarchi-
consciousness at higher levels of social structure
cal organization can also be seen as a hierarchy
tends to be alienated, tends to define the value
of modes of social control. The lower levels
attached to a level of organization as simply inher-
consist of social forms and techniques for
ent in itself, rather than as a product of human
controlling processes of transformation. Higher
social activity or of a system of interdependent
levels are comprised of reproductive processes,
relations among parts of a whole. This fetishized
consisting of relational mechanisms for control-
character of the collective representations consti-
ling the production of primary processes and
tuting the society's form of consciousness of itself
attendant social relations (e.g., marriage as a can become an obstacle in its reformulation.
mechanism to reproduce the family). As one
moves higher in such structures, he observes,
Practices and New Conditions of Place
differentiated social mechanisms of control and
reproduction disappear: My concern here, pursued under the abstract
sign of "fetishization", is not immediately with the
question of misrecognition so much as it is with
A level is reached in every social structure in which
production and reproduction are not directlythe relationship between the qualities of "place"
controlled through specialized social relations or
and the cycles of social activity in which they are
processes, but instead take place indirectly and as constructed. This is, I hope to have indicated, a
it were reflexively through the repetition of the insti-rather different process of "construction" than
tution, process or level of organization in question
the one Ingold (1996) criticizes and attributes to
as a means of reproducing some lower level. [Turn-
me. It is one in which the value of "places" is
er 1980: 31]
produced in their capacity to mediate relation-
ships of shared identity and difference, of hierar-
Thus, for example, marriage is reproduced as
chy and equality within a regional sociopolitical
system. The process of placemaking is also to be
14 Terry Turner has developed and extend- understood as one in which the material proper-
1980) as is its relationship to the practical
ed his theorization of culture considerably
consequences of culture's theorization. ties made significant by movement or travel in the
beyond the simple form of this early paper,
15 For a similar argument, see Myers world - constituted through processes of aggre-
but its outline is clearest here (Turner1980.
gation and dispersal, in the traditional mode, and
114 MYERS
secrecy and disclosure)

now through other vectors promotes of
a distinctive
m
mode of distinctive
marked as having orientation to experience of the world
valu
their capacity (Munn
to 1970).17
differentiate
Indeed, we can seeMerlan'sjust such
(1998) analysis of how an accu
Aboriginal
as new religious cults,
girl named Julie, living such as toT
in Katherine, came
"Balgo Business" (see
understand also
an event of local Glowc
construction as the
Kolig 1979, Myers
extraction of 1982a,
a rainbow serpent from Swainthe river-
and discern new relations
cave illustrates just such a role among
of social media-
bining and even
tion reformulating
in understanding place. Subjects acquire t
argued (Myersknowledge
1982a) and
of the environment as through
only partly Sw
shown quite brilliantly
direct perception orin histhis
engagement: book.
environ-
relations of exchange, place becomes more ment is actively produced as meaningful, is objec-
"generalized", a sort of currency, a generalizationtified and revealed, through the signifying prac-
in fact which might result in something like thetices of various commentators and instructors -
local creation of a more homogeneous "space,"her mother and another older relative. Even new
as seems to occur in some religious formulations discoveries, as they do occur in dreams or ritual
which spread throughout Central Australia and innovation, of what is "in the country" must pass
the Kimberleys, where travelling religious cultsthrough procedures of legitimation to become
have been traditionally a medium for formulating"true". The girl's sense of dwelling in Katherine is
and reformulating relationships among people, not constituted simply by the everyday experience
between localities16.
of being there. It is constituted, instead, by a
My account insists, not on some simple appli-
range of objectified mediations through which a
cation of cultural models to space but on the mundane piece of roadwork instantiates an ontol-
significance of social practices intervening ogy of place as revelation. Julie is walking down
between subject and the object world. This is the street in Katherine to get an ice cream cone
what we certainly see in the broadest sense with but her readiness to grasp the manifestation she
socialization, and now also it is possible to has seen shows a sense of relation to the place
acknowledge the way in which research in Aborig- that is different overall, not just a matter of a
inal Australia has shown how involvement in
single experience.
broader regional (and transregional) systems Moreover,has this signification of place-meaning
led to the construction of meaning in place. This
is motivated by a range of accompanying prac-
is to insist on a semiotic mediation in place tices of
and social relations. Among these, accord-
originary meanings of dwelling: that experiences ing to Merlan, is "the faithful acceptance of the
acquire meaning and value within already extant word of older people on such matters as the
regimes and relations of signifying practice. Even
particular meanings of place" characteristic of
at its simplest, each individual subject does not
Julie and others of her background (Merlan 1998:
infer, deduce or even in any simple way invent the
73). The understanding of place, furthermore,
meanings of these places through a process of for Julie the self-assurance of the
provides
"dwelling" as some unmediated experience of
person who belongs locally: she speaks of herself
the place itself. Most of the meaning that places
as a person on the scene, familiar with Katherine
"gather," so to speak, have been taught, passed
town, and able to walk around it without a prob-
on through distinct processes of socialization,
lem, given the personal relationships which
albeit practices whose revelatory emphasis (on
anchor her.
16 Such indigenous practices often refor-Such an integration of distinctive places Problems of Placemaking
mulate the relationship among places inwithin encompassing relations of similarity
terms of newly revealed (or discovered)and difference in larger systems is familiar There is more to the story Merlan provides,
ancestral activities linking them. In that in Arnhem Land, too, in various groupings leading us to the next and final topic to be consid-
respect, they represent the discovery of of clans. ered here-the importance of changing politics and
new qualities in place, consequent to their17 For a recent attempt to develop this sortrelations of signification in defining the meaning of
integration of changing supralocal regimes of point about secrecy, see Weiner's place. The uprooted rainbow provides a distinctive
of order. Thus, the Warlpiri Gadjari (Meggitt
(1996) discussion of the controversial
1966) cycle connects places of differentHindmarsh Island bridge affair in South image as "an autochthonous force that assaults
local groups through the visits - "above the the unfamiliar" (1998: 85). In the story, then, the
Australia and Brunton's (1996) response.
ground" - of a unifying set of ancestors. anonymous stranger is seen to uproot and destroy
the native cleavage inwhich

force their historical being, although theth
was
difference changing nature of'countryma
between their knowledge of the land
Now, through foraging isthe
the unfamiliar, relevant. stranger
town. AnybodyI have can tried to be
show that the meanings no
here of
places, even "place"
reprisal: a former as "the place where I forage",
has should
bec
space, no longernot be thought of as existing outside of a set of fo
a significant
objectifications social
of determinations
identity, that might well beeither
founded in
specific terms (1998:
systematic 89).
relations beyond the local. This is not
Merlan describes the development of a to ignore the experiences of the activities of hunt-
consciousness in which country and place are
ing and gathering but to deny them a priori value or
experienced as meaningful in a variety of ways, originary
of significance, any more than the associa-
divisions within the landscape. Some places are
tion of places with significant emotional attach-
said to be "just country," meaning Aborigines
ments to relatives can be understood outside of a
assume mythological associations exist but broader
do system that gives them value.
not know them. "Aboriginal people like Julie nowThis argument is necessary to pursue not only
live with a diversified consciousness of the possi-
for theoretical reasons. To put the point briefly,
ble meaningfulness of country and places" the Katherine people are in a complicated posi-
(Merlan 1998: 88). Such diversified conscious- tion in relation to recent efforts within Australia to
nesses, no longer (if ever) singular, require that provide a place for recognizing "Aboriginal
they be placed within a framework of changing culture", either through land claims in which
practice to be understood. people might be granted title to "traditional"
The processes involved in this Katherine Aboriginal land, or more generally through the
placemaking are not entirely "traditional", butrecognition of their contemporary cultural activity
represent what Turner (see above) also tried to as "Aboriginal". The dilemma is best exemplified
theorize in his rejection of a focus on the productsin three quite bitter cases - that of Coronation Hill
of human social activity (culture, society). The (Merlan 1991), that of Belyuen Aborigines
neutralization of town space is articulated (Povinelli 1995), and the most recent case of
Hindmarsh Island (see Weiner 1996) - where
through Aboriginal practices, but it is not anymore
a "place" of the same sort. No longer "tradition-
claims of Aboriginal "inventions of tradition" and
al", yet not simply "Western", this relationshipcustoms
to were used by the state to cast doubt on
the town center shows the effects of whites' reor- the authenticity of their claims to identity with the
ganization of the temporal and spatial dimen-places. The standards through which Aboriginal
sions of Aboriginal relations to places through culture has been judged by the state have
work, modifying some of the sensitivities for rela-involved the implicit understanding of "tradition"
tionships to places. A position that acknowledges as largely unchanging, ancient and so on - view-
the primacy of social practice allows us to see ing only such expressions as deserving of official
contemporary Aboriginal self-making and place- respect by Australia's land rights laws.
making as continuous with earlier practices Few of the people in Katherine, exemplarily of
rather than abruptly disjoined. There has been, the situation, any longer practice the ritual reen-
after all, considerable disputation about what actments of The Dreaming which are typically
might be authentic Aboriginal relations to place. identified as constituting a "traditional Aboriginal
Merlan takes the contemporary situation of relationship to land". Rather than conceiving of
the Aboriginal people of Katherine as her prob-the change as their having become less Aborigi-
lem, people whose relationships to their own nal or more Western, or to have lost their culture,
historical cultural practices are quite uncertain - Merlan demonstrates that they have distinctive
differing, therefore, from the case I have articu-(and often contradictory) practices and ideologies
lated for the less dislocated Pintupi people. of place-making. These practices have objectified
Nonetheless, she seeks to explain the particu-social groups far larger than the pre-contact
larity of their contemporary production of place"local descent group" in terms of their relation to
and their relationships to places through a a "tribal territory" that probably did not exist in
consideration of the practices of residence, this form earlier, representing the historical amal-
kinship, and politics they have carried from the gamation of distinctive groups in their joint rela-
past. This ought not to be seen as an absolutetionship to an extended country.
116 MYERS
Merlan has pointed out

"place". I wish to point out thatthe
a major issueprob
in the
by questions of sociocultural
contemporary attempt to sustain such Aboriginalch
problematic concept of "tradition" in public understandings within the context of conditions
discussions of Aboriginal culture as "ancient and set by the Australian nation-state has been how to
unchanging" (1991: 341): opposing tradition toovercome the emphasis anthropological represen-
modernity, they formulate "tradition" as purelytations of "Aboriginal culture" and the religious
cultural rather than in any sense social and histor- relationship to the land have had in such judg-
ical. The current relationships of Katherine ments of what constitutes genuine Aboriginal
people to place are judged as "nontraditional".culture. How to show that ceremonies need not be
Such positions deny tradition's legitimate rele- conceived as the only "authentic" forms of Aborig-
vance to Aborigines today. inal recognition of place, how to allow for further
In a sense, the Aboriginal people of Katherineconstruction, without calling it "invented" or
are caught up in the problems of the representa- "nontraditional".
tion of their culture and social life by others. This There is a problem in theorizing this process
is well-known in Australia, and elsewhere, and it of construction, in not identifying the "Aboriginal"
first emerged most clearly in relationship to with the emergent product - ritual objectifications
whether women in Aboriginal societies had rights - only. Rather, it would be necessary to recognize
to land - since anthropologists had emphasized the activities through which people in Katherine
men's ritual as the source of this relationship. Butcontinue to produce an identity for themselves in
Merlan has a particularly powerful subsequent relation to place. Since this might not involve the
location in which to explore the effects - since onehunting and gathering acitvities as primary in
of the most important public controversies aboutdwelling, to grant these originary value would be
the truthfulness of Aboriginal claims in Australiaas problematic in the end as identifying the
took place in her area, focused on the "authentic- genuinely Aboriginal with ritual.
ity" - not only the Aboriginalness, so to speak, but Thus, Merlan insists - as do I - on the central-
also their identity with prior practice - of contem-ity of practices which provide the foundation for
porary understandings of Coronation Hill as the
a formulaic objectifications of traditional Aborig-
inal formulations of "place" in terms of The
18 Merlan names three anthropologists It is a social medium of objectification. In
Dreaming - which had been the only forms of rela-
whose work is exemplary of this view - Bell documenting numerous examples of indi-
tionship granted legitimacy in Australian law.
1983, Rose 1992, Povinelli 1995. To this vidual constructions of experience within
list, I would also add the important contribu-the Kukatja life-world, Les jardins du "However absolute the 'dreaming' significance of
tion of Sylvie Poirier (1995). As in the work of nomade is able to show how the overarch- places may seem", she writes, "they were also
Bell, she emphasizes the potential of ing structure of The Dreaming is mediated always constituted... within and through the
dreams while on the land to bring living by acting subjects in daily life. The project
range of practices which linked people with
people back into contact with the ancestralof understanding - and explicating - the
places" 18
presence, to establish an identity with place."oneiric process" as a socio-cultural form
Focusing on the role of dreams, creativity,involves, as well, several quite singular
and innovation within the context of an ideo- reconsiderations of social process in Conclusion
logical structure of permanence among Aboriginal life. She develops, for example, The crux of my argument has been that the
Western Desert Aboriginal people, Poirier the idea of an apprenticeship in dreaming,
emphasizes the "immanence" of The
practices of place-making and the experiences of
through which individuals learn to manage
Dreaming - its place within everyday life the
- experience as a cultural medium; this place, must be understood as socially and politi-
formulates the activity of dreaming into acally organized. This may or may not give primacy
and its consequent availability for the formu-
lation of new human arrangements without social one. Her discovery of the prevalenceto the concrete activities of hunting and gather-
of dreams of death as a parallel to concep-
challenging the overall structuring of experi-
ing, which I regard as an empirical point to be
ence. The second contribution is her theo- tion illuminates the outlines of the cosmo-
retical argument that the cultural organiza-
determined in any case. That is to say that I
logical structure, partly apprehended by
tion of dreaming constitutes an important Aboriginal participants, in which dreams regard the process of "construction" not as a
structure itself, mediating the contingent stand as the significant mediator of human projection of pre-existing cultural templates onto
reproduction. The cases she presents of a tabula rasa world, but a dialectical engagement
with the mythological realm of The Dreaming.
This is clearly an area that deserves to the appropriation of dreams in Aboriginal
of socially and historically constituted schemas
become the center of studying an expand- practice provide a concrete basis for the
of practical activity with worldly circumstance. In
ed Aboriginal sociality. The medium ofclaim that exegesis is always "open", wait-
dreams offers a space-time, she shows, in ing for events, and an exploration of thethis way, and perhaps only in this way, are we
practice of interpretation in egalitarianable to avoid removing Aboriginal people and their
which the creative participation of individu-
als can be articulated with the ideologicalcommunities in which authoritative inter- practices of everyday life from history - to see
emphasis on permanence and continuity. preters are lacking. them as only now entering into the world of
contesting politics and controversy.

discourse and Controversies
contr about
tions. Any place, it would
Pintupi appear, are founded
subject muston the samealw
himself or herself born to a location within an dichotomous procedures of separating "culture"
already existing spatially extended systemfrom
of "practice" (Merlan 1998, Turner 1980) or
places and people. "culture" and "economy" (Povinelli 1995) that
The Katherine people are not hunters and underlay an earlier anthropology.
gatherers living in a world of hunter-gatherers but A postscript might be in order. As Merlan has
are, then, like most people in the world forced to noted for the people in the Katherine area, the
define themselves in relation to a variety of relationship of Pintupi people to their country is
discourses that are not of their own making. changing. I can see this with those I know best.
These are practical conflicts with theoretical Only a few remain who grew up hunting and gath-
significance and conflicts in which the boundaries ering as a way of life. These men and women
between theory and practice are breached. knew the country, lived it, in a way those who
Belyuen self-representations are not, then, were born in settlements and missions do not.
shown as "ab-original" traces carried into theThey knew the habits of each creature, the slight-
present, but their self-consciousness is markedest features of the landscape, a landscape that
by the historical context of cultural contestation.is now traveled more typically by vehicle. In Alice
As the discussion above shows, it would be Springs last July, I found out that my friend
impossible to separate anthropology from the George Yapa Yapa - born at Kumirnga, out past
rest of Western discourse. Theorizing is always athe Pollack Hills in Western Australia - now lives
form of practical encounter with data, and there-in town full time. I can't think of too many people
fore representations are necessarily inescapably who can describe for me, eyes bright and glinting,
part of a broader context. The attempt to makehow they traveled in the old days, where to find
anthropological descriptions of Aboriginal socialwater, shade or food. George has kidney prob-
life stand absolutely for what they represent islems, and lives in a camp on the southern end of
also bound to fail. Yet, the act (and politics) of Alice Springs. In Alice, George and his remaining
representation and the production of "truths," far Pintupi friends are much sought after by dealers
from being issues of academic concern, have for their paintings, and their pictures are
come to be central material forces in the contem-
displayed by the paintings as tokens of authen-
porary constitution of Aboriginal social life in their
ticity. The paintings are all about the country, but
claim to land in the present. - so it seems to me - not many people are inter-
Let me return, therefore, to my broader ested in the sort of knowledge that George has,
concern about the political context of place- the detailed knowledge of all those places that
making. It is critical to remember that the repre-used to constitute one's identity. Will theoretical
sentational practices of anthropology and ethnog-anthropologists, now focused on the transna-
raphy are inextricably caught up in the productiontional and the more universalizing discourses of
and deployment of indigenous identities, makingmodernity, return to such knowledges, or will we
all of the philosophical and theoretical question-pursue the objectifications of Aboriginal country
ings of recent critique (the limits of representa-that have entered into world-wide circulation?
tion, the problem of power/knowledge) intrinsic At the moment, this has become significant
to description itself. As importantly, we are justagain, as the Ngaanyatjarra Council has filed a
beginning to theorize how one is to come to terms claim on behalf of Pintupi people based on the
with the more subtle forms of "difference" and Native Title Act (based on the famous Mabo High
"cultural activity" that are instantiated in the Court
new Decision in favor of recognizing native title)
Aboriginal cultural formations. An approach for thatthe area of the Western Desert previously long
looks at Aboriginal practices contextuallyoccupied
in by the Pintupi. For this claim, the knowl-
historical process is very illuminating of the edge
way of travels that I recorded from Wuta Wuta,
in which meanings are reshaped and contested -
Freddy West, Yumpurlurru and others is again
whether in Katherine, Darwin, or the Western relevant. Travelling over the country is being
Desert. There is no question, too, that withinconverted,
the it is hoped, into permanent title. Visits
to this country, which have been renewed in
Australian context the local meanings Aboriginal
people hold to exist about "places" (sacred sites,
recent years, are teaching much about the way
and so on) have become the focus of national people lived here and what sort of place it is.
118 MYERS
The famous phenomenological knowledge

Tingarri siteofof dwellingNgu
and
about which I had heard so much and which knowledge of environmental features that Ingold
figured in the Balgo business, also has been
underscores as essential to place making, and
the of
revisited, as part of the new understandings socially mediated cosmologies classically
native title constituted in the Mabo decision. This associated with the Dreaming - both embedded
Tingarri place, also known as "Nyaru" ("burned in structural relations of social life. Our most diffi-
out place") is said to have been a source of cult problem in theorizing the relationship to land
"living water". Under the ground there, I was told, has been the focus on an imagined uniform
were sacred objects buried to protect them from "tradition" and the failure to conceptualize the
potentially conflicting and disaggregated prac-
the big fire (at initiatory time in the story). Indeed,
a researcher for the claim told me what was tices through which socially recognized identities
discovered during this last visit to the site: with place and places themselves are produced.
digging into the soakage, one finds red stone Our knowledge of these is mediated yet again in
outcroppings under the ground, and from this the political economy and legal culture that has
stone - these transformed sacred objects offramed the Aboriginal lives in different ways for the
ancestors - leaches out living water! Such last 220 years.
instances clarify the inseparability of the sort of
References tribal du "cargo". "L'Homme", 23: 7- 1995, The Anthropology of Land-

35. scapes. Oxford: Oxford University
ASCH, Michael 1979, The Ecological
Press.
Evolutionary Model and the Concept ofHALLOWELL, A. Irving 1955, The Self
Mode of Production. In D. Thomas and
and its Behavioral Environment Cul- INGOLD, Tim 1991, Against the motion
G.A. Smith, eds. Challenging Anthro-
ture and Experience. New York: (1), in Human Worlds are Culturally
pology. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 81-97. Schocken Books. Constructed. Manchester: Group for
BELL, Diane 1983, Daughters of the Debates
HALLOWELL, A. Irving 1969, Ojibwa On- in Anthropological Theory.
Dreaming. Sydney: McPhee Gribble. tology, Behavior and World View. INGOLD,
in Tim 1993, The temporality of
BRUNTON, Ron 1992, Mining Credibili- the landscape. (World Archaeology))
Stanley Diamond, ed. Primitive Views
of the World. New York: Columbia
ty: Coronation Hill and the Anthropolo- 25 (2): 152-74.
University Press, 49-82.
gists. "Anthropology Today" 8 (2): 2-5. INGOLD, Tim 1996, Hunting and Gath-
BRUNTON, Ron 1996, The Hindmarsh HAMILTON, Annette 1979, Timeless ering as Ways of Perceiving the Envi-
Transformations: Women, Men andronment, in R. Ellen and K. Fukui,
Island Bridge and the Credibility of
H istory in the Australian Westerneds. "Redefining Nature" Ecology,
Australian Anthropology. "Anthropol-
ogy Today" 12 (4): 2-7. Desert. Ph.D. Dissertation, Universi- Culture and Domestication, pp. 117-
CASEY, Edward 1995, How to get from of Sydney.
ty 155. Oxford: Berg.
space in a fairly short stretch of time:
HAMILTON, Annette 1982, Descended JACKSON, Michael 1995, At Home in
Phenomenological prolegomena, in S.
from father, belonging to country: the World. Durham: Duke University
Feld and K. Basso, eds., Senses of Rights to land in the Australian West- Press.
Place. Santa Fe: SAR Press, 13-52. ern Desert, in E. Leacock and R. Lee, JACOBS, Jane 1996, At the Edge of
eds., Politics and History in Band So-
CHATWIN, Bruce 1987, The Songlines. Empire. New York: Routledge.
New York: Viking Press. ciety. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
JAKOBSON, Roman 1960, Closing
sity Press.
COWAN, James 1989, Mysteries of Statement: Linguistics and Poetics in
the Dreaming. Dorset, UK: Prism HARDY, Frank 1968, The Unlucky Aus- Sebeok, T. (ed.), Style in language,
Press. tralians, Sydney: Thomas Nelson. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts In-
FELD, Steven and KEITH Basso, eds. HEIDEGGER, Martin 1979, Building, stitute of Technology.
1995, Senses of Place. Santa Fe: Dwelling, Thinking. in Poetry, Lan- KEEN, lan 1992, Undermining Credi-
SAR Press. guage, Thought, A. Hofstadter trans- bility: Advocacy and Objectivity in the
GLOWCZEWSKI, Barbara 1984, Manifesta-lator. New York: Harper and Row,
Coronation Hill Debate. "Anthropolo-
143-62. gy Today" 8 (2): 6-9.
tions symboliques d'une transition
economique: Le "Juluru", culte inter- HIRSCH, Eric and O'HANLON, Michael
KEEN, lan 1993, Aboriginal Beliefs vs.
Mining at biri Coronation Hill:

and Pitjantjatjara Myth, in Ronald STANNER, The
W.E.H. 1956, Co
The Dreaming,
taining Force Berndt, Ed. of
Australian Traditionalism.
Aboriginal An- in T.A.G. Hungerford, ed. Australian
((H
man Organization,, thropology, pp. 141-163. Nedlands,52: Signpost, 344-355.
Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire.
KIMBER, Richard [Dick] G. 1990, WA: University of Western Australia STREHLOW, T.G.H. 1970, Geography
Press.
'Friendly People-Friendly Country': An and the Totemic Landscape in Cen-
exhibition of Aboriginal artworks from MYERS, Fred R. 1980, The Cultural tral Australia, in Ronald Berndt, ed.
the peoples of the Tanami and GreatBasis of Pintupi Politics, "Mankind", Australian Aboriginal Anthropology.
Sandy Deserts. Ambrose Press: Vic- 12: 197-213. pp. 92-140. Nedlands, WA: Universi-
tor Harbor, SA. MYERS, Fred R. 1982a What is the ty of Western Australia Press.
KOLIG, Eric 1979, Djuluru: Ein 'business' of the Balgo Business? ASTREHLOW, T.G.H. 1971, Songs of
synkretistichen Kult Nordwet-Aus- Contemporary Aboriginal ReligousCentral Australia. Sydney: Angus and
traliens. "Baessler-Archiv" (new se-
Movement. Unpublished ms. files ofRobertson.
ries), 27: 419-48. the author.
SWAIN, Tony 1993, A Place for
LAWLOR, Robert 1991, Voices of the MYERS,.Fred R. 1982, Always Ask: Re-
Strangers. Melbourne: Cambridge Uni-
source Use and Landownership
First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal versity Press.
Dreamtime. Rochester, VT: Inner Tra-among the Pintupi of Central Aus- TURNER, Terry 1973, Piaget's Struc-
ditions Press. tralia, in N. Williams and E. Hunn, turalism. "American Anthropologist"
eds., Resource Managers: North
LEE, Richard and I. DEVORE, eds 1968, 75: 351-373.
American and Australian Hunter-
Man the Hunter, Chicago: Aldine. TURNER, Terry 1979, Kinship, House-
Gatherers, pp. 173-96. Boulder:
LEE, Richard 1984, The Dobe! Kung. Westview Press.
hold and Community Structure
New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Win- among the Kayapo. in David Maybury-
ston. MYERS, Fred R. 1986, Pintupi Coun- Lewis, ed. Dialectical Societies. pp.
try, Pintupi Self: Sentiment, Place,
179-217. Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
LEVI-STRAUSS, Claude 1962, Totemism.
and Politics among Western Desert versity Press.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Aborigines. Washington, D.C.: Smith-
LEVI-STRAUSS, Claude 1966, The Sav- sonian Institution Press. TURNER, Terry 1980, Anthropology
age Mind. Chicago: University of and the Politics of Indigenous Peo-
MYERS, Fred R. 1988a, Critical Trends
ple's Struggles. Cambridge Anthro-
Chicago Press.
in the Study of Hunter-Gatherers. pology (winter).
MAUSS, Marcel 1979 [1904], Sea- "Annual Review of Anthropology",
sonal Variations of the Eskimo: A vol. 17: 261-82. Palo Alto: Annual
VYGOTSKY, L.S. 1962, Thought and
Study in Social Morphology. trans. by Language, trans. and edited by Euge-
Reviews, Inc.
nia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar.
J. Fox. London: Routledge and Kegan
MYERS, Fred R. 1988, Burning the
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Paul. reprinted 1979.
Truck and Holding the Country: Forms
MAUSS, Marcel 1954, The Gift: Forms WEINER, Annette 1980, Reproduction:
of Property, Time, and the Negotia-
and Functions of Exchange in Archaic A Replacement for Reciprocity.
tion of Identity among Pintupi Aborig-
Societies. Ian Cunnison, trans. Glen- "American Ethnologist", 7: 71-85.
ines, in T. Ingold, D. Riches, and J.
coe, III: Free Press. WEINER,
Woodburn (eds), Hunter-Gatherers, Annette 1992, Inalienable
II: Property, Power and Ideology.Possessions.
MEGGITT, Mervyn J. 1966, Gadjari Lon- Berkeley: University of
California Press.
don: Berg Publishing.
among the Walbiri Aborigines. Ocea-
nia Monographs. Sydney: University WEINER, James 1991, The Empty
MYERS, Fred R. 1993, Place, Identity,
of Sydney Press. and Exchange: The Transformation Place.
ofBloomington: Indiana Universi-
ty Press.
Nurturance to Social Reproduction
MERLAN, Francesca 1991, The Limits
of Cultural Constructionism: The over the Life-Cycle in a Kin-Based So- James 1996, Anthropolo-
WEINER,
Case of Coronation Hill. "Oceania" ciety, in J. Fajans, ed., Exchanging
gists, Historians, and the Secret of
61 (4): 341-352. Products: Producing Exchange. "Ocea-
Social Knowledge, "Anthropology To-
MERLAN, Francesca 1996, Caging the nia Monograph", 43, pp. 33-57. day" 12 (3): 3-7.
Rainbow. Honolulu: University of POIRIER, Sylvie 1995, Les Jardins du
WILLIAMS, Nancy 1986, The Yolngu
Hawaii Press. Nomade. Lit. in Leiden and their Land, Canberra: Australian
MORGAN, Marlo 1994, Mutant Mes-POVINELLI, Elizabeth 1995, Labor's Institute of Aboriginal Studies Press.
sage Down Under. New York: Harper
Lot. Chicago: University of Chicago WILMSEN, Edwin, ed. 1983, The Ecolo-
Collins. Press. gy of Illusion. "Reviews in Anthropol-
MORTON, John 1989, Black and White ROSE, Deborah 1992, Dingo Makes ogy", 10: 9-20.
Totemism: Conservation, Animal us Human: Life and Land in an Aus- WILMSEN, Edwin, 1989, We are Here.
Symbolism, and Human Identifica- tralian Aboriginal Culture. Cam-Berkeley: University of California
tion in Australia. in David Croft, ed. bridge: Cambridge University Press.Press.
Australian People and Animals in To- SACKETT, Lee 1991, 'Promoting Primi-
WOODWARD, A. (Mr. Justice) 1973,
day's Dreamtime, pp. 21-52. New tivism: Conservationist Depictions of
First Report of the Aboriginal Land
York: Praeger. Aboriginal Australians'. "The Aus-Rights Commission. Melbourne: Of-
MuNN, Nancy 1970, The Transforma- tralian Journal of Anthropology", 2 (2) fice of the Aboriginal Land Rights
tion of Subjects into Objects in Wal- 233-246 Commissioner.

MYERS - FRED - Ways of Place Making PDF

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

MYERS - FRED - Ways of Place Making PDF

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

Ways of Place-Making

Author(s): Fred R. Myers

FRED R. MYERS Ways of Place-Making*

However absolute the 'dreaming' 1979, Myers 1988a,

in its impact. Projecting ines anything like rights of

However, named ethnographicplaces,

a year, much through less a lifetime.

tained8. Regular visiting Land as Identity is one such

ceremony, in a sense, distant co-owners. It

tively represent er'sthose

into the experiences place and space"of (ibid.: kinship

secrecy and disclosure)

the native cleavage inwhich

Merlan has pointed out

contesting politics and controversy.

The famous phenomenological knowledge

References tribal du "cargo". "L'Homme", 23: 7- 1995, The Anthropology of Land-

Mining at biri Coronation Hill:

También podría gustarte