About the Book
The Pintupi, a hunting-and-gathering people of Australia's Western Desert, were among the last Aborigines to come into contact with white society. Despite their extended relocation in central Australian settlements, they have managed to preserve much of their traditional culture and social organization. This book presents a comprehensive ethnographic interpretation of the ways in which Pintupi politics, cosmology, kinship systems, nomadic patterns, and social values reinforce and sometimes contradict each other.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Past into Present:
"We Are the People from the West"
CHAPTER 2 The Dreaming: Time and Space
CHAPTER 3 Individuals and Bands
CHAPTER 4 Being a Countryman:
Emotions and the Cultural Subject
CHAPTER 5 The Cultural Basis of Landownership
and Its Social Implications
CHAPTER 6 Relatedness and Differentiation
CHAPTER 7 Kinship: Models of the Pintupi Social Universe
CHAPTER 8 The Cultural Content of Hierarchy:
Politics and Value
CHAPTER 9 Time and the Limits of the Polity
Conclusion
Notes
References Cited
Index
Maps and Diagrams
