Anthropology, Politics and the Changing World of Aboriginal Australians

Bibliographic Data

ID2144663
AuthorsM Langton (0000-0002-1398-7524, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume21
Issue1
Pages1-22
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2011.549447
OpenAlexW2052309425
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited12

Essentialism has become a fundament of Aboriginal activism in modern Australia, with the result that informed, first-hand empirical observations of anthropologists who chronicle the deterioration of life in many Australian Aboriginal communities tend not to be taken seriously simply because their authors are not ethnically ‘Aboriginal’. This problem has contributed to a relative absence of analysis of the economic history of Aboriginal Australians, fostering instead an approach that prioritises the political and cultural rights of indigenous people above the kinds of life-enhancing circumstances that are necessary for them to participate in the economy and create wealth. This kind of essentialism has also resulted in a disregard for the rights of indigenous people as individuals, rather than as communities seeking self-determination, especially with regard to the rights of women and children. The work of Professor Ronald M. Berndt and Dr Catherine Berndt should serve as an example for today's anthropologists in encouraging broader expert participation in debates on indigenous disadvantage, despite the threat of admonishment or criticism by Aboriginal rights activists wielding the weapon of racial priority or essentialism. Keywords: AnthropologistsAboriginal PeopleSelf-DeterminationEconomic DevelopmentHuman Rights Notes [1] This paper is a revised and edited version of Professor Langton's Berndt Foundation Biennial Lecture, delivered at The University of Western Australia on April 22, 2009. [2] There is a large literature on ‘essentialism’; a number of recent contributions are apposite to my argument here: Cravens Citation2010; Morton Citation1998; Mitchell Citation1996. [3] For more on the authority of anthropologists in the Aboriginal world, see Mulvaney 1970. [4] I have described the events that followed in my chapter in First Australians: An Illustrated History (Langton and Perkins Citation2008b) published last year as a companion to Rachel Perkins's brilliant television series, ‘First Australians’. In the other chapters, historians James Boyce, Bruce Pascoe, Wayne Atkinson and others describe in detail the painful revolution in Aboriginal life that followed. [5] One should remember that a large part of the Aboriginal population at that time was already involved in Australian economic life. Somehow, the achievements of high-profile Aboriginal people during those years—such as boxer Lionel Rose, jockey Darby McCarthy, or poet Kath Walker—seemed less extraordinary than did Cathy Freeman's victories to a later, more romantically inclined, Australia. [6] Pearson wrote an outstanding honours thesis in the Department of History at the University of Sydney, and was awarded first-class honours, along with the gold medal in law. [7] See also Pearson's ‘Eddie Mabo Human Rights Lecture’, at James Cook University of North Queensland, on May 17

Argument (complex analysis) · Criticism · Environmental ethics · Essentialism · Human rights · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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