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Farmers or hunter-gatherers? : the dark emu debate / Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe.

By: Contributor(s): Publication details: Carlton, VIC : Melbourne University Press, 2021.Description: 288 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, illustrations (some colour), maps, forms ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9780522877854
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 305.89915 23
LOC classification:
  • DU124.A46 2021
Contents:
1. The Dark Emu debate -- 2. Spiritual propogation -- 3. The language question -- 4. Ecological agents and 'firestick farming' -- 5. Social evolutionism rebirthed -- 6. The agriculture debate -- 7. Patterns of apparel -- "Aquaculture' or fishing and trapping? -- 9. Dwellings -- 10. Mobility -- 11. The explorers' records -- 'Agricultural' implements and antiquity -- 13. Stone circles and 'smoking' trees -- Conclusion.
Summary: An authoritative study of pre-colonial Australia that dismantles and reframes popular narratives of First Nations land management and food production. Australians' understanding of Aboriginal society prior to the British invasion from 1788 has been transformed since the publication of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu in 2014. It argued that classical Aboriginal society was more sophisticated than Australians had been led to believe because it resembled more closely the farming communities of Europe. In Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe ask why Australians have been so receptive to the notion that farming represents an advance from hunting and gathering. Drawing on the knowledge of Aboriginal elders, previously not included within this discussion, and decades of anthropological scholarship, Sutton and Walshe provide extensive evidence to support their argument that classical Aboriginal society was a hunter-gatherer society and as sophisticated as the traditional European farming methods. 'Farmers or Hunter-gatherers?' asks Australians to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal society and culture.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item reserves
New book Melbourne Athenaeum Library Non-Fiction 305.899 SUT Available 072718
Total reserves: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. The Dark Emu debate -- 2. Spiritual propogation -- 3. The language question -- 4. Ecological agents and 'firestick farming' -- 5. Social evolutionism rebirthed -- 6. The agriculture debate -- 7. Patterns of apparel -- "Aquaculture' or fishing and trapping? -- 9. Dwellings -- 10. Mobility -- 11. The explorers' records -- 'Agricultural' implements and antiquity -- 13. Stone circles and 'smoking' trees -- Conclusion.

National edeposit: Available onsite at national, state and territory libraries Online access with authorization star AU-CaNED

An authoritative study of pre-colonial Australia that dismantles and reframes popular narratives of First Nations land management and food production. Australians' understanding of Aboriginal society prior to the British invasion from 1788 has been transformed since the publication of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu in 2014. It argued that classical Aboriginal society was more sophisticated than Australians had been led to believe because it resembled more closely the farming communities of Europe. In Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe ask why Australians have been so receptive to the notion that farming represents an advance from hunting and gathering. Drawing on the knowledge of Aboriginal elders, previously not included within this discussion, and decades of anthropological scholarship, Sutton and Walshe provide extensive evidence to support their argument that classical Aboriginal society was a hunter-gatherer society and as sophisticated as the traditional European farming methods. 'Farmers or Hunter-gatherers?' asks Australians to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal society and culture.

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