Australian Journal of Anthropology最新文献

This paper identifies the probable features of contemporary traditional land tenure in the Northern Territory. The fragility of the intergenerational transmission of detailed knowledge of traditional country in current circumstances leads to a hollowing out of the previous concomitants of dreaming sites (stories, songs, rituals, designs). Concurrently, traditional ideas of the spirits of the Old People and associated rituals of announcement and introduction become ascendent, as does claimant archival research, processes of sacralising sites of previous quotidian human activity, strictly biological ideas of descent, and the inclusion of select individuals into traditional owner groups by means other than descent. All these developments seem to raise questions of what can be considered ‘traditional’ under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. Only some of these changes may be accommodated under the limited flexibility in the current definition of traditional owner. Does the definition need revision to prevent disenfranchising the younger generation?

During the brutal Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste from 1975 to 1999, over 100,000 Timorese out of an estimated population of 650,000 lost their lives; thousands more suffered a range of horrific human rights violations. This paper discusses ‘dark tourism’—tourism linked with this violent past—in Timor-Leste's post-independence era. The paper focuses its analysis of dark tourism on two of the most well-known tourist sites linked with the Indonesian past, both sites of former violence: the Santa Cruz cemetery and the Comarca Balide prison. It looks specifically at international tourists' experiences at the two sites. The paper contributes to debates over the morality of dark tourism, as well as to human rights and transitional justice literatures that examine how memorialisation efforts play out on the ground. It argues, among other things, that a view of dark tourism as purely amoral thrill-seeking or voyeurism should be tempered. The case of Timor-Leste shows us instead that dark tourism can play an important role in individuals' attempts to understand, learn more about, and otherwise make meaning out of complicated pasts of violence.

This article explores the notion of pragmatic cosmopolitanism in Teochew, China. It examines the way international student returnees perceive their sense of belonging at home and their cosmopolitan identities in a parochial area. Based on ethnographic research, this article offers a unique perspective from a specific regional space with significant migrant history that has witnessed dramatic socio-economic changes since China's ‘open door’ policy. Although the life trajectories of international student returnees reveal aspects of cosmopolitanism, they are deeply rooted in the moral obligation of filial piety in Teochew. Their life trajectories continue to be shaped and reshaped by familial expectations of kinship, marriage, and succession. Meanwhile, they struggle to maintain their cosmopolitan identities from the negotiable elements of returning, realised through their consumption choices and friendship circle.

This article is about the relationship between common history and specific cultures. Specifically, it seeks a resolution to the ongoing problem of which of these should be given logical priority in anthropology— that is, which should be given the status of first cause. This problem is exemplified in the 1990s debate between proponents of the so-called ‘New Melanesian Ethnography’ and those of the ‘New Melanesian History’. Thinking through the Parliament House sculptures controversy that erupted in Papua New Guinea in 2013, we draw an analogy between the work of Marilyn Strathern and Dipesh Chakrabarty to argue that difference can be located in practices of description. Drawing on the ideas of Elizabeth Anscombe and Ian Hacking, we suggest that descriptive practices are inextricably linked with intentional actions—that is, intentional actions exist ‘under a description’. On this basis, we argue that neither culture nor history can be a first cause, since both are created by specific descriptive practices—history and ethnography as accounts of the world, for example, but also indigenous accounts embodied in state-building, Pentecostal Christianity, or gift exchange. We close by suggesting how anthropologists might allow the times and differences of others to flourish in their own descriptive practices and avoid the kind of metaphysical impasse that marked Melanesian studies in the 1990s.

This paper examines the history and activities of the Timorese NGO Empreza Di'ak, focusing on its role in revitalising traditional pottery (sanan rai in Tetum) on Atauro Island. Traditionally a form of women's knowledge, pottery has been reimagined in the post-independence era as cultural heritage at risk of extinction, now transformed into commodities primarily targeting the tourist market. The paper explores the interplay of social, economic, and generational factors driving the revival of sanan rai production within the broader context of positioning Atauro as an international tourism destination. It delves into the complexities, challenges, and subjectivities that arise, alongside the unexpected situations and evolving expectations of local communities as they navigate this process of (re)engaging with and revaluing a nearly lost tradition.