Aboriginal Homelands and Economy in Australia's Western Desert : Martu Ngurrara (Elements in Ancient and Pre-modern Economies)

Bird, Douglas W./ Bird, Rebecca Bliege

Cambridge University Press（2026/03発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 75 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781009548243
• DDC分類 994.10089915

Full Description

This Element is about the interacting socio-ecological relationships of a contemporary Aboriginal foraging economy. In the Western Desert of Australia, Martu Aboriginal systems of subsistence, mobility, property, and transmission are manifest as distinct homelands and networks of religious estates. Estates operate as place-based descent groups, maintained in both material egalitarianism (sharing, dispossession, and immediate return) and ritual hierarchy (exclusion, possession, and delayed return). Interwoven in Martu estate-based foraging economies are the ecological relationships that shape the regeneration of their homelands. The Element explores the dynamism and transformations of Martu livelihoods and landscapes, with a special focus on the role of landscape burning, resource use practices, and property regimes in the function of desert ecosystems.

Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: a burning economy; 2. Historical and political contexts; 3. The ecology of fire-stick farming; 4. Local organization: mobility, residence, and production; 5. The foraging economy; 6. Social organization: property, estates, and kinship; 7. Conclusion: going home to Martu country; Note on methodology and ethnographic writing; References.