Abstract

Many of the elements ascribed to traditional Aboriginal beliefs and practices are the result of contact with external peoples--Melanesians and Indonesians, as well as Europeans. This controversial and provocative book is the first detailed and continent-wide study of the impact of outsiders on Australian Aboriginal worldviews. The author separates out a common core of religious belief that 1111 precontact spirituality of Australian Aborigines more concerned with place than with any philosophy of time or origins. A Place for Strangers investigates Aboriginal myth, ritual, cosmology and philosophy, and also examines social organization, subsistence patterns and cultural change. It will be of great interest to readers in anthropology, religious studies, comparative philosophy, Aboriginal studies and Australian history.