In this updated edition of a brief yet remarkable book, David Turner draws on a lifetime of experience to explore the beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of Australia. Those beliefs, he observes, form the foundation for a pan-continental way of life based not on the principle of unity but on a complex inter-relationship of interdependent parts. And that worldview has much to offer the rest of the human world as it searches for a path to a sustainable and secure future. As the author writes in the preface to the book:

In February of 1969 my wife Ruth and I first set foot on a remote island in north Australia to research the way of life of the local Aboriginal people, just as mining was commencing on their land-a couple from Canada via London, England, and Perth, Western Australia, myself enrolled as a Ph.D. student at the University of Western Australia, sent to Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory by my professor, Ronald M. Berndt. A tent in the middle of the Aboriginal camp at Angurugu for day-time work, a "staging house" across the Angurugu River as living quarters: spiders, snakes, a river to cross every evening with the risk of salt-water crocs swimming upstream. A wet season that's too wet and hot, a dry season that's too dry and hot, infection from even the slightest cut. Trying to learn Anindilyaugwa, one of the most complex languages in the world. Missionaries, mining. The whole gamut. All this time, all those revisits in between, articles and books published, working to come to an understanding of what makes these Aboriginal people and their way of life tick. But what better way to understand something than to become part of it yourself? And what better way to express a basic understanding than in just a few words, leaving the rest to the readers' experiences in their own environment? After all, we're all the same kind of people. Aren't we? Capable of the same experiences. Hopefully.

Formato	Tapa suave
Número de Páginas	52
Lenguaje	Inglés
Editorial	Rock's Mills Press
Fecha de Publicación	2023-03-28
Dimensiones	8.0" x 5.0" x 0.14" pulgadas
Número de Edición	3
Descripción de Edición	Final
Letra Grande	No
Con Ilustraciones	No

Turner, David

David Turner is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having taught and conducted research in the Department of Anthropology and Centre for Religious Studies since 1975. His early interest in the Australian Aborigines took him to the University of Western Australia in Perth, where he completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology (with special commendation) in 1971. Following this he established the Aboriginal Studies program at the Australian National University. In 1973 he returned to Canada to teach, first at the University of Manitoba and then at the University of Toronto. His other books include Tradition and Transformation: A Study of Aborigines in the Groote Eylandt Area, Northern Australia and Return to Eden: A Journey through the Promised Landscape of Amagalyuagba. He currently resides in his home town of Perth, Ontario.