The Australian Aborigines. A Portrait of their Society

Australia occupies a special place in the history of anthropology, for it was the one continent to be inhabited until recent times only by hunters and gatherers. A culture of considerable complexity had development among the Australian Aborigines by which they were in many respects marked off from other peoples. Although their culture has been ravaged in the course of European settlement and has in many areas virtually disappeared, it is beginning to assume a new importance as a basis and symbol for Aboriginal wishes for autonomy. In this authorative study, Kenneth Maddock deals critically and systematically with the religion and social order of the Aborigines in the light of the recent expansion of anthropological studies. In so doing, he provides a new insight into the special character of their culture at a time when white Australians are less wedded to policies of assimilation and more receptive to notions of the persistence of cultures other than their own.