Y Musharbash
Biographic Data
| ID | 14325 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Y Musharbash |
| GIVEN NAMES | Y |
| FAMILY NAME | Musharbash |
| SIGNATURE | MUSHARBASH Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5700-9047 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 115 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Smug justice: Alienation on the court lawns during the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest, Mparntwe/Alice Springs
In November 2019, Warlpiri youth Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot in his grandmother’s house in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, in Australia’s Northern Territory, by police constable Zach Rolfe. Next to grief and trauma, the shooting brought with it a barrage of legal processes causing further trauma. Following the murder trial (which found Constable Rolfe not guilty), the Kumunjayi Walker Coronial Inquest took place (2022-2024). Whil…
Growing Up in Central Australia: New Anthropological Studies of Aboriginal Childhood and Adolescence
Surprisingly little research has been carried out about how Australian Aboriginal children and teenagers experience life, shape their social world and imagine the future. This volume presents recent and original studies of life experiences outside the institutional settings of childcare and education, of those growing up in contemporary Central Australia or with strong links to the region. Focusing on the remote communities – roughly 1,200 across…
Chapter 3. Warungka: Becoming and Unbecoming a Warlpiri Person
An introduction in 3 parts: Anthropological perspectives on the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker
This is an introduction in three parts. In the first part, I introduce this Special Issue, the briefs that led to its realisation, some of the key themes the contributors wrestle with, and the contributions themselves. The second part is more of a personal introduction; namely, an ethnographic narrative of my own experience of the first hours and days following the shooting. My aim here is to take the reader into the field at the beginning of the…
Monsters
Monsters are not only key protagonists in myths, legends, fairy tales, fiction, and films; they also haunt cellars, cyberspace, and crossroads. Based on encounters with monsters in their fieldsites, anthropologists define monsters as inherently social entities but with a defiant relationship to order. This entry showcases that monsters haunt humans in culturally distinct ways. Emphasising the comparative potential of monsters, it highlights the w…
Yulyurdu: Smoke in the Desert
I begin this paper with a nod to ‘the beginning’ by linking smoke to fire, and fire to humankind. Bound up in this deep history of smoke and humanity is a dichotomy cleaving humans from animals and the west from the rest. Taking smoke at Yuendumu, a Warlpiri community in central Australia as my subject, I aim to destabilise some of the certainties entrenched in this dichotomy. Smoke, of course, is nigh impossible to pin down, literally as well as…
Telling Warlpiri Dog Stories
Ostensibly about dingoes and dogs, this paper explores aspects of the contemporary social world of Warlpiri people in the camps of the central Australian settlement of Yuendumu (Northern Territory) through canines. Analyses of dog socialisation, kinds of domestication, and the roles that camp dogs perform (such as protector, family, and witness) provide insights into Warlpiri notions of moral personhood and are employed to reflect about the ethic…
At Home in the Okavango: White Batswana Narratives of Emplacement and Belonging, by Catie Gressier
"At Home in the Okavango: White Batswana Narratives of Emplacement and Belonging, by Catie Gressier." Anthropological Forum, 26(2), pp. 215–216
Night, sight, and feeling safe: An exploration of aspects of W arlpiri and W estern sleep
Sleeping leaves those asleep ‘blind’ and hence oblivious to potential or real danger. Such dangers are heightened further and more feared at night, the main time for sleep. In this article, I link ideas about sleep and nighttime social practices with questions about vision. My aim is to tease out some of the meanings implied in cross‐culturally distinct solutions to the protection of sleepers at night. I proceed by contrasting ethnographic data f…
Ethnography and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge: Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson
Professor Nicolas Peterson is a central figure in the anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. This volume honours his anthropological body of work, his commitment to ethnographic fieldwork as a source of knowledge, his exemplary mentorship of generations of younger scholars and his generosity in facilitating the progress of others. The diverse collection produced by former students, current colleagues and long-term peers provides reflections on his…
Marriage, Love Magic, and Adultery: Warlpiri Relationships as Seen by Three Generations of Anthropologists
A nuclear family, that is the social unit comprising a husband, wife(s) and their children, is one of the significant core elements around which the great majority of societies are built. An individual's most immediate social and emotional relationships, those between children and parents, between husband and wife, and between siblings are encapsulated within it. How these relationships are realised in actual practice is partly dependent upon the…
Warlpiri fears/whitefella fears: Ways of being in Central Australia seen through an emotion
Perilous Laughter: Examples from Yuendumu, Central Australia
Against the background of popularisations of Freud's theory of laughter as anxiety release and Lustgewinn (pleasure gain), this paper presents some ethnographic examples of laughter from Yuendumu, central Australia, in which weakness and fear are considered to originate from laughter. Analysing some of the specific conceptual links that Warlpiri people make between laughter and weakness on the one hand, and between laughter and fear on the other,…
You'veGotto be Joking: Asserting the Analytical Value of Humour and Laughter in Contemporary Anthropology
This paper introduces an edited volume on laughter and joking by way of exploring the relative marginalisation of humorous phenomena within the anthropological literature. In framing a new body of work in the area, rather than suggesting a collective thesis or unified theoretical approach to humorous phenomena, it argues for the necessity and value of detailed ethnographic descriptions of laughing and joking behaviours. In particular, it proposes…
Boredom, Time, and Modernity: An Example from Aboriginal Australia
In this article, I explore an anthropologically underresearched topic, boredom, utilizing ethnographic data from the Australian Aboriginal settlement of Yuendumu and situating that research in a comparative perspective. I examine the concept's genesis and meaning at Yuendumu using the social-constructivist approach to boredom as proposed in literature studies, sociology, and philosophy. That approach provides an account of how the emergence of bo…
Red Bucket for the Red Cordial, Green Bucket for the Green Cordial: On the Logic and Logistics of Warlpiri Birthday Parties 1
Birthday parties are a relatively new occurrence at Yuendumu, a Warlpiri settlement in central Australia. By focusing on the food prepared and consumed at these parties, I examine the ritualised Warlpiri and non‐Warlpiri elements of these events, with a particular view to Warlpiri women's creativity in shaping and re‐shaping them. I contrast birthday party food from everyday staple foods and so‐called ‘bush tucker’, and analyse these different fo…
Boredom, Time, and Modernity: An Example from Aboriginal Australia
In this article, I explore an anthropologically underresearched topic, boredom, utilizing ethnographic data from the Australian Aboriginal settlement of Yuendumu and situating that research in a comparative perspective. I examine the concept's genesis and meaning at Yuendumu using the social-constructivist approach to boredom as proposed in literature studies, sociology, and philosophy. That approach provides an account of how the emergence of bo…
You'veGotto be Joking: Asserting the Analytical Value of Humour and Laughter in Contemporary Anthropology
This paper introduces an edited volume on laughter and joking by way of exploring the relative marginalisation of humorous phenomena within the anthropological literature. In framing a new body of work in the area, rather than suggesting a collective thesis or unified theoretical approach to humorous phenomena, it argues for the necessity and value of detailed ethnographic descriptions of laughing and joking behaviours. In particular, it proposes…
Telling Warlpiri Dog Stories
Ostensibly about dingoes and dogs, this paper explores aspects of the contemporary social world of Warlpiri people in the camps of the central Australian settlement of Yuendumu (Northern Territory) through canines. Analyses of dog socialisation, kinds of domestication, and the roles that camp dogs perform (such as protector, family, and witness) provide insights into Warlpiri notions of moral personhood and are employed to reflect about the ethic…
Warlpiri fears/whitefella fears: Ways of being in Central Australia seen through an emotion
Perilous Laughter: Examples from Yuendumu, Central Australia
Against the background of popularisations of Freud's theory of laughter as anxiety release and Lustgewinn (pleasure gain), this paper presents some ethnographic examples of laughter from Yuendumu, central Australia, in which weakness and fear are considered to originate from laughter. Analysing some of the specific conceptual links that Warlpiri people make between laughter and weakness on the one hand, and between laughter and fear on the other,…
Ethnography and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge: Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson
Professor Nicolas Peterson is a central figure in the anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. This volume honours his anthropological body of work, his commitment to ethnographic fieldwork as a source of knowledge, his exemplary mentorship of generations of younger scholars and his generosity in facilitating the progress of others. The diverse collection produced by former students, current colleagues and long-term peers provides reflections on his…
Smug justice: Alienation on the court lawns during the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest, Mparntwe/Alice Springs
In November 2019, Warlpiri youth Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot in his grandmother’s house in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, in Australia’s Northern Territory, by police constable Zach Rolfe. Next to grief and trauma, the shooting brought with it a barrage of legal processes causing further trauma. Following the murder trial (which found Constable Rolfe not guilty), the Kumunjayi Walker Coronial Inquest took place (2022-2024). Whil…
Red Bucket for the Red Cordial, Green Bucket for the Green Cordial: On the Logic and Logistics of Warlpiri Birthday Parties 1
Birthday parties are a relatively new occurrence at Yuendumu, a Warlpiri settlement in central Australia. By focusing on the food prepared and consumed at these parties, I examine the ritualised Warlpiri and non‐Warlpiri elements of these events, with a particular view to Warlpiri women's creativity in shaping and re‐shaping them. I contrast birthday party food from everyday staple foods and so‐called ‘bush tucker’, and analyse these different fo…
Boredom, Time, and Modernity: An Example from Aboriginal Australia
In this article, I explore an anthropologically underresearched topic, boredom, utilizing ethnographic data from the Australian Aboriginal settlement of Yuendumu and situating that research in a comparative perspective. I examine the concept's genesis and meaning at Yuendumu using the social-constructivist approach to boredom as proposed in literature studies, sociology, and philosophy. That approach provides an account of how the emergence of bo…
Perilous Laughter: Examples from Yuendumu, Central Australia
Against the background of popularisations of Freud's theory of laughter as anxiety release and Lustgewinn (pleasure gain), this paper presents some ethnographic examples of laughter from Yuendumu, central Australia, in which weakness and fear are considered to originate from laughter. Analysing some of the specific conceptual links that Warlpiri people make between laughter and weakness on the one hand, and between laughter and fear on the other,…
You'veGotto be Joking: Asserting the Analytical Value of Humour and Laughter in Contemporary Anthropology
This paper introduces an edited volume on laughter and joking by way of exploring the relative marginalisation of humorous phenomena within the anthropological literature. In framing a new body of work in the area, rather than suggesting a collective thesis or unified theoretical approach to humorous phenomena, it argues for the necessity and value of detailed ethnographic descriptions of laughing and joking behaviours. In particular, it proposes…
Marriage, Love Magic, and Adultery: Warlpiri Relationships as Seen by Three Generations of Anthropologists
A nuclear family, that is the social unit comprising a husband, wife(s) and their children, is one of the significant core elements around which the great majority of societies are built. An individual's most immediate social and emotional relationships, those between children and parents, between husband and wife, and between siblings are encapsulated within it. How these relationships are realised in actual practice is partly dependent upon the…
Warlpiri fears/whitefella fears: Ways of being in Central Australia seen through an emotion
Ethnography and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge: Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson
Professor Nicolas Peterson is a central figure in the anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. This volume honours his anthropological body of work, his commitment to ethnographic fieldwork as a source of knowledge, his exemplary mentorship of generations of younger scholars and his generosity in facilitating the progress of others. The diverse collection produced by former students, current colleagues and long-term peers provides reflections on his…
Night, sight, and feeling safe: An exploration of aspects of W arlpiri and W estern sleep
Sleeping leaves those asleep ‘blind’ and hence oblivious to potential or real danger. Such dangers are heightened further and more feared at night, the main time for sleep. In this article, I link ideas about sleep and nighttime social practices with questions about vision. My aim is to tease out some of the meanings implied in cross‐culturally distinct solutions to the protection of sleepers at night. I proceed by contrasting ethnographic data f…
At Home in the Okavango: White Batswana Narratives of Emplacement and Belonging, by Catie Gressier
"At Home in the Okavango: White Batswana Narratives of Emplacement and Belonging, by Catie Gressier." Anthropological Forum, 26(2), pp. 215–216
Telling Warlpiri Dog Stories
Ostensibly about dingoes and dogs, this paper explores aspects of the contemporary social world of Warlpiri people in the camps of the central Australian settlement of Yuendumu (Northern Territory) through canines. Analyses of dog socialisation, kinds of domestication, and the roles that camp dogs perform (such as protector, family, and witness) provide insights into Warlpiri notions of moral personhood and are employed to reflect about the ethic…
Yulyurdu: Smoke in the Desert
I begin this paper with a nod to ‘the beginning’ by linking smoke to fire, and fire to humankind. Bound up in this deep history of smoke and humanity is a dichotomy cleaving humans from animals and the west from the rest. Taking smoke at Yuendumu, a Warlpiri community in central Australia as my subject, I aim to destabilise some of the certainties entrenched in this dichotomy. Smoke, of course, is nigh impossible to pin down, literally as well as…
Monsters
Monsters are not only key protagonists in myths, legends, fairy tales, fiction, and films; they also haunt cellars, cyberspace, and crossroads. Based on encounters with monsters in their fieldsites, anthropologists define monsters as inherently social entities but with a defiant relationship to order. This entry showcases that monsters haunt humans in culturally distinct ways. Emphasising the comparative potential of monsters, it highlights the w…
Growing Up in Central Australia: New Anthropological Studies of Aboriginal Childhood and Adolescence
Surprisingly little research has been carried out about how Australian Aboriginal children and teenagers experience life, shape their social world and imagine the future. This volume presents recent and original studies of life experiences outside the institutional settings of childcare and education, of those growing up in contemporary Central Australia or with strong links to the region. Focusing on the remote communities – roughly 1,200 across…
Chapter 3. Warungka: Becoming and Unbecoming a Warlpiri Person
An introduction in 3 parts: Anthropological perspectives on the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker
This is an introduction in three parts. In the first part, I introduce this Special Issue, the briefs that led to its realisation, some of the key themes the contributors wrestle with, and the contributions themselves. The second part is more of a personal introduction; namely, an ethnographic narrative of my own experience of the first hours and days following the shooting. My aim here is to take the reader into the field at the beginning of the…
Smug justice: Alienation on the court lawns during the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest, Mparntwe/Alice Springs
In November 2019, Warlpiri youth Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot in his grandmother’s house in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, in Australia’s Northern Territory, by police constable Zach Rolfe. Next to grief and trauma, the shooting brought with it a barrage of legal processes causing further trauma. Following the murder trial (which found Constable Rolfe not guilty), the Kumunjayi Walker Coronial Inquest took place (2022-2024). Whil…
Sociology (11 works) · History (9 works) · Art (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works)