Place, Personhood and Marginalization: Ontology and Community in Remote Desert Australia

Authors

  • Nicolas Peterson Australian National University

Keywords:

marginalization, personhood, Aboriginal Australia, relational ontology

Abstract

Aboriginal Australians living in remote desert communities, usually far from centres of mainstream economic activity and employment, show little inclination to leave them for economic opportunities elsewhere. Some have argued that the tie is based on the ontological significance of place, while others have emphasized marginalization brought about by past government policies. In this article I question both of these views and suggest that emplacement is grounded in the centrality of the relational ontology and the need to live within a dense network of sociality. This raises the issue of whether there are desirable forms of long-term dependency.

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Published

2015-11-30

How to Cite

Peterson, N. (2015). Place, Personhood and Marginalization: Ontology and Community in Remote Desert Australia. Anthropologica, 57(2), 491–500. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/438

Issue

Vol. 57 No. 2 (2015): Shamanism, Religious Renewal and Empowerment in Indigenous Societies / Consent, Collaboration, Treaty: Toward Anti-Colonial Praxis in Indigenous Settler Research Relations

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Nicolas Peterson

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