Fantastic Dreaming
The Archaeology of an Aboriginal Mission
Seiten
2009
Altamira Press (Verlag)
978-0-7591-1104-2 (ISBN)
Altamira Press (Verlag)
978-0-7591-1104-2 (ISBN)
Focusing on the archaeological investigation of a Moravian mission in southeastern Australia, the traditional country of the Wergaia-language speakers,Fantastic Dreaming examines how spatial organization, the consumption of Western goods, and the practices required by domesticity were used to transform Aboriginal people.
Fantastic Dreaming explores how whites have measured Australian Aboriginal people through their material culture and domestic practices, aspects of culture intimately linked to Enlightenment notions of progress and social institutions such as marriage and property. Archaeological investigation reveals that the Moravian missionaries' attempts to "civilize" the Wergaia-speaking people of northwestern Victoria centered on spatial practices, housing, and the consumption of material goods. After the mission closed in 1904, white observers saw the camp settlements that formed nearby as evidence of Aboriginal incapacity and immorality, rather than as symptoms of exclusion and poverty. Conceptions of transformation as acculturation survived in assimilation policies that envisioned Aboriginal people becoming the same as whites through living in European housing. These ideas persist in archaeological analysis that insists on Aboriginality as otherness and difference, and equates objects with identity. However Wergaia tradition was place-based, and, often invisibly, Indigenous people maintained traditional relationships to kin and country, resisting white authority through strategies of evasion and mobility. This study examines the complex role of material culture and spatial politics in shaping colonial identities and offers a critique of essentialism in archaeological interpretation.
Fantastic Dreaming explores how whites have measured Australian Aboriginal people through their material culture and domestic practices, aspects of culture intimately linked to Enlightenment notions of progress and social institutions such as marriage and property. Archaeological investigation reveals that the Moravian missionaries' attempts to "civilize" the Wergaia-speaking people of northwestern Victoria centered on spatial practices, housing, and the consumption of material goods. After the mission closed in 1904, white observers saw the camp settlements that formed nearby as evidence of Aboriginal incapacity and immorality, rather than as symptoms of exclusion and poverty. Conceptions of transformation as acculturation survived in assimilation policies that envisioned Aboriginal people becoming the same as whites through living in European housing. These ideas persist in archaeological analysis that insists on Aboriginality as otherness and difference, and equates objects with identity. However Wergaia tradition was place-based, and, often invisibly, Indigenous people maintained traditional relationships to kin and country, resisting white authority through strategies of evasion and mobility. This study examines the complex role of material culture and spatial politics in shaping colonial identities and offers a critique of essentialism in archaeological interpretation.
Jane Lydon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University.
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Chapter 1. 'they covet not Magnificent Houses, Houshold-stuff' Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Orienting the Wergaia Chapter 4 Chapter 3. The Example of Ebenezer Chapter 5 Chapter 4. 'Fantatic Dreaming:' space, power, and the Mission-house Chapter 6 Chapter 5. 'All these little things:' material culture and domesticity Chapter 7 Chapter 6. After the mission closed, 1904-1930: Antwerp Chapter 8 Chapter 7. 'The outskirts of civilization' 1930-1960s Chapter 9 Chapter 8. 'A handle of a cup:' changing views of the missions
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 16.1.2010 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Worlds of Archaeology |
| Verlagsort | California |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 162 x 239 mm |
| Gewicht | 667 g |
| Themenwelt | Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7591-1104-9 / 0759111049 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-7591-1104-2 / 9780759111042 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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