Farmers or hunter-gatherers? : The Dark Emu debate / Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sutton, Peter, 1946- author.

Walshe, Keryn, author.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pascoe, Bruce, 1947- Dark emu.

Pascoe, Bruce.

Aboriginal Australians--Social life and customs.

Aboriginal Australians.

Aboriginal Australians--Agriculture.

Aboriginal Australians--Antiquities.

Aboriginal Australians--History.

Land use, Rural--Australia.

Land use, Rural.

Hunting and gathering societies--Australia.

Hunting and gathering societies.

Australia--History.

Australia.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

288 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2021.

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"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

1. The Dark Emu debate

2. Spiritual propagation

3. The language question

4. Ecological agents and 'firestick farming'

5. Social evolutionism rebirthed

6. The agriculture debate

7. Patterns of apparel

8. 'Aquaculture' or fishing and trapping?

9. Dwellings

10. Mobility

11. The explorers' records

12. 'Agricultural' implements and antiquity

13. Stone circles and 'smoking' trees

Conclusion

Appendix 1: When did Indigenous people arrive in Australia?

Appendix 2: Band movements recorded by William Buckley

Acknowledgements

Image credits

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-279) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780522877854

0522877850

OCLC:

1249030997

Publisher Number:

99993578224

Access Restriction:

National edeposit: Available onsite at national, state and territory libraries Online access with authorization.