Full Description
This is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between marriage, violence and sorcery in an Australian Aboriginal Community, drawing on David McKnight's extensive research on Mornington Island. The case studies, which occurred both before and after a Presbyterian Mission was established on the island, allow McKnight to show how the complexities of kin ties and increased sexual competition help to explain incidences of violence and sorcery, without resorting to psychiatric justifications. He demonstrates that kin ties both stimulated conflict and helped to mitigate it. Following on from McKnight's previous book, Going the Whiteman's Way (Ashgate 2004), Of Marriage, Violence and Sorcery offers an archive of valuable primary materials, drawing on the author's forty-year knowledge of the community on Mornington Island.
Contents
Contents: Preface; History of the Wellesley Islands; Marriage: Lardil and Yangkaal: endogamy and exogamy; Kaiadilt endogamy and exogamy; Violence: Early time fights; Baya! Baya! Fight! Fight!; Violence in the 1970s; Reasons for violence; Sorcery: Sorcerers and clever men; Spearing in the Bush; Recent sorcery cases; Some general observations about sorcery; All the Puripuri men are dead; Appendix: sorcery cases; Bibliography; Index.
