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Publications |
Humanities
Research
The journal of the Humanities
Research Centre and the Centre for Cross-Cultural Reserch
Volumes online
Issue
1, 2003: Latin America
Issue
2, 2003: Monuments and Commemorations
Issue
1, 2002: Museums of the Future (Part 2)
Issue
1, 2001: Museums of the Future (Part 1)
To obtain previous editions of the journal please contact
the CCR.
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Recent Publications
by Centre Staff |
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Synergies
A generously illustrated 64 page exhibition catalogue was produced
for SYNERGIES with an introduction by Howard Morphy and Nigel Lendon
and essays by the nine curators.
The catalogue is available on order from the Centre for Cross-Cultural
Research at the Australian National University, priced at $25. Dowload
the PDF order form for your copy now.
The curators of SYNERGIES, and editors of the exhibition catalogue,
Howard Morphy and Nigel Lendon, wanted to move away from a progressivist
viewing of art in contemporary Australia, while still conveying the
sense of a loose trajectory, by asking colleagues to select the work
of artists who had something to say about the relationship between
identity, history and place. They found it useful to have in mind
a word with a capacity for metaphorical extension, that is a little
fuzzy around the edges; a word that points in a particular direction,
has certain connotations but does not fix things too literally. Synergy
is a gentle word – it refers to the process of sensing similarity
in difference, seeing the way things may fit together, work in harmony
or contribute to dialogue. Synergy is unforced likeness.
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MOVING
LANDSCAPES
National Parks & Vietnamese Experience
ISBN 1864031743 | RRP $24.95 | ONLINE $22.45 | 180 pages | paperback
Buy online from Pluto Press
In Moving Landscapes, anthropologist Mandy Thomas asks what the national
parks of New South Wales mean to Vietnamese-Australians in Sydney.
As refugees and migrants, these people have built new lives in a radically
different society and a dramatically different landscape. National
parks epitomise things they find most novel, challenging and frequently
delightful in the new landscape: its undomesticated unsocialised quality,
its strangely different flora and fauna, its bush fires and its sheer
size.
The voices of the Vietnamese-Australian participants in this study
are given prominence. They speak of what nature meant to them in Vietnam,
their fondness for fishing, their fear of being lost or kidnapped
in the Australian bush, their thoughts about the conservation ethic.
Thomas is able to draw from these voices themes of key importance
for those interested in the multicultural dimension of heritage and
park management.
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ALTER/ASIANS
Asian-Australian identities in art, media and popular culture
Ien Ang, Sharon Chalmers, Lisa Law, Mandy Thomas
ISBN 186403176 | RRP $32.95 | ONLINE $29.65 | 300 pages | paperback
| Oct 2000
Buy online from Pluto Press
Asians in Australia, Australia in Asia, the Asianisation of Australia.
The presence of Asians within Australia continues to be represented
in the media as a problem for social cohesion, and a source of panic.
This book explores this controversial topic in contemporary Australian
society and culture. For the first time in the post-Hanson era, a
book looks at how 'Asia' and 'Australia' are already thoroughly intertwined
in everyday culture and in the imagined worlds of Australians of both
Asian and non-Asian backgrounds.
Itacknowledges an evolving cultural and political cosmopolitanism
in Australia, without ignoring the continuing frictions as the country
moves into a new century in a globalised world. The editors investigate
the dynamic scene of Asian cultural production of art, literature,
media and performance which illuminate the social and cultural experiences
of Asians.
Alter/Asians challenges the current debates around xenophobia and
the perceived threat of danger from Asia and enriches our understanding
of the impact of people from diverse Asian backgrounds in Australian
culture. Written by academics, artists and performers in an accessible
style, it sheds light on the future shape of Australian everyday life,
media and popular culture.
Back to publicatins page.
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DREAMS
IN THE SHADOWS
Vietnamese-Australian lives in transition
St. Leonards, Allen and Unwin, 1999, 222 pp, ISBN 1 86448 862 X.
Price $25
Email: asiabook@gil.com.au
What is it like to be a refugee in a country that has a completely
different culture from your own, where you feel very different from
those around you? With a fine eye for detail and keen empathy for
her interviewees, the author explores the experiences of Vietnamese
living in Australia. She examines displacement and loss, ongoing effects
of war trauma and international and community politics. While reflecting
on many of the contemporary debates on identity and communality, she
explores the concrete realities of Vietnamese lives through their
daily experiences.
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ANCESTRAL
CONNECTIONS:
Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge
by Howard Morphy
published by The University of Chicago press,
1991, 329 pp
ISBN 0226538664
Price: paperback: RRP: US$22.5 | hard cover: US$55
available through amazon.comAncestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal
system of knowledge
Ancestral Connections unlocks the inner meaning of Australian Aboriginal
bark painting. Drawing on more than ten years of fieldwork among the
Yolngu--an Aboriginal people of Northeast Arnhem Land--and applying
both anthropological and art historical methods, Howard Morphy explores
systematically the graphic representation of traditional knowledge
in Yolngu art. He also charts the role that art has played in Aboriginal
society both present and past.
The rich symbolism of Yolngu art links the Yolngu directly with the
"Dreaming," the time of world-creation that continues as
the spiritual dimension of the present. Morphy shows how a complex
dialectic of "inside" and "outside" interpretations
of painting structures the system of knowledge in Yolngu society,
and how European interest in this art has caused certain changes in
the conditions of its production. The "inside" significance
of the art, however, has not changed; it retains its dual ability
to represent and to constitute relationships between things.
Ancestral Connections is a major contribution to the anthropology
of art. A subtle commentary on the colonial encounter in northern
Australia, the book demonstrates how the Yolngu have used their art--against
all odds--as an instrument of cultural survival and as a component
of the economic and political transformation of their society.
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Aboriginal
Art
by Howard Morphy
published by Phaidon, 1998, 447 pp
ISBN 0714837520
Price :$22.95
French and Japanese translations also
available.
Price: €24.95 or Can$35
available through amazon.com
Aboriginal art has survived the colonial period to become a major
feature of contemporary Australian society. Howard Morphy, one of
the world's foremost authorities in this field, surveys the great
variety in Aboriginal art, from ancient rock paintings to powerful
modern works in acrylic on canvas. The patterns and symbols of Aboriginal
art, though they may at first appear abstract, are laden with meaning.
Morphy explains the social contexts in which art is made and its religious
significance. This is the first book on Aboriginal art to use a contextual
approach to show the interrelationships between such diverse art forms
as body painting, dance, the decoration of weapons and utensils, and
painting on bark, board and canvas. The text is illustrated with outstanding
examples, many published here for the first time. Today, Aboriginal
art is seen as an expression of Aboriginal history, culture and identity.
Howard Morphy's clear, insightful text explains why its international
audience is growing. |
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JOURNEY
TO THE CROCODILE'S NEST:
an accompanying monograph to the film Madarrpa Funeral at Gurka'wuy
by Howard Morphy
published by Australian Institute of
Aboriginal Studies, Griffin Press Ltd, 1984, 160 pp.
ISBN 0 391 03034 5
Out of Print
Madarrpa Funeral at Gurka'wuy, a film made by Ian Dunlop of Film Australia,
records the burial of a young child who dies unexpectedly at a small
Aboriginal settlement on trial Bay in north-east Arnhmen Land in the
Northern Territory of Australia. The child belonged to the Madarrpa
clan of the Yolngu linguistic group whose lands extend over most of
north-eat Arnhem Land.
This book is more than a guide to the film. Although focussed on
a single burial ceremony, it also provides an understanding of the
Yolngu ceremonial system as a whole. By taking into account the relevant
social background, the author is able to explain the process of planning
teh ritual performance as well as showing the meaning it had for performers,
their rationale for the forms they used, and their participation.
Most importantly, the religious meanings of the forms - paintings,
songs, and ritual dances- and their manifold symbolism is explained.
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Aboriginal
Religions in Australia
edited by Max Charlesworth, Françoise Dussart, Howard
Morphy
Series: Vitality of Indigenous Religions Series
published by Ashgate, England, 2005
iSBN 0 7546 5128 2
order through http://www.ashgate.com
$94.95/£47.50
Over the last 25 years there has been an explosion of interest in
the Aboriginal religions of Australia and this anthology provides
a variety of recent writings, by a wide range of scholars. Australian
Aboriginal Religions are probably the oldest extant religious systems.
Over some 50,000 years they have coped with change and re-invented
themselves in an astonishingly creative way. The Dreaming, the mythical
time when the Ancestor Spirits shaped the territories of the Aborigines
and laid down a moral and ritual law for their occupants, is the fundamental
religious reality. It is the basis of the Aborigines's view of their
land or country, kinship relationships, ritual and art. However, the
Dreaming is not a static principle since it is interpreted in different
ways, as in the extraordinary movement in contemporary indigenous
painting, and in attempts at an accommodation with Christianity.
The contributions of anthropologists, cultural historians, philosophers
of religion and others are included in this anthology which not only
guides readers through the literature but also ensures this still
largely inaccessible material is available to a wider range of readers
and non-specialist students and academics.
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The Art of Narritjin
Maymuru
Howard Morphy, Pip Deveson, Katie Hayne
ISBN: 1 920942 24 6 (CD) $30 (GST inclusive)
Narritjin Maymuru led a life that was as extraordinary and adventurous
as that of any Australian artist of the twentieth century. Howard Morphy,
with the help of Pip Deveson, has scoured the collections of museums,
art galleries and private collections around the world to bring together
an archive of Narritjin's paintings and carvings spanning nearly forty
years of his work.
The Art of Narritjin Maymuru enables you to explore his art. You
can begin either by following the timeline that summarises the main
biographical features of Narritjin's life or by moving straight into
the sets of paintings.
This CD-ROM brings together 400 works by renowned Aboriginal artist
Narritjin Maymuru from institutions and private collections throughout
the world. The works are organised according to their reference to
ancestral events and places in Narritjin's own Manggalili and related
clan territories. The CD-ROM explores the iconography, themes and
meanings of the key sets of paintings and highlights aspects of Narritjin's
life that are relevant to and reflected in his art.
See Reviews:
Francoise Dussart, American Anthropologist, June 2007, Vol. 109, No. 2, pp. 363-364
John E. Stanton, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Volume 7, Number 2, 2006
Charlotte Townsend-Gault, Visual Anthropology Review, Fall 2006, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 80-82
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Caste, Colonialism
and Counter-modernity: Notes on a post-colonial hermeneutics of caste
by Debjani Ganguly
published by Routledge, Taylor and francis Group
ISBN 0415 342974
order online
One prevalent socio-cultural structure that is peculiar to South
Asia is caste, which is broadly understood in socio-anthropological
terms as an institution of ranked, hereditary and occupational groups.
This book discusses the enigmatic persistence of caste in the lives
of South Asians as they step into the twenty-first century. It investigates
the limits of sociological and secular historical analysis of the
caste system in South Asia and argues for ways of describing life-forms
generated by caste on the subcontinent that supplement the accounts
of caste in the social sciences. By focusing on the literary, oral,
visual and spiritual practices of one particular group of ex-untouchables
in western India called `Mahars¿, the author suggests that
one can understand caste not as an essence that is responsible for
South Asia¿s backwardness, but as a constellation of variegated
practices that are in a constant state of flux and cannot be completely
encapsulated within a narrative of nation-building, modernization
and development.
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Impossible
Selves: cultural readings of Identity
edited by Jacqueline Lo, Duncan Beard, Rachel Cuneen and Debjani Ganguly
order: enquiry@scholarly.info
These fourteen essays from all disciplines in the Humanities are
unified by their concern with the concept of a stable unified subject.
The idea of "impossible selves: points to the difficulty of fixing
and projecting an imagined seld and draws attention to the shifting
and contested terrain of identity politics, and its interactions with
the realms of communal and national politics.
published by Australian Scholarly
ISBN 1 875606 63 7
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Unfinished
Journeys: India File from Canberra
edited by Debjani ganguly and Kavita Nandan
order from http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/CRNLE/catalogue.pdf
A collection of essays, memoirs and autobiographical contributions
all recognising the cross-cultural bridges between India and Australia.
An exploration of the real and potential passages from and to India.
published byFlinders University
ISBN 0758 0645 1
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Karaoke
Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear
by Monique Skidmore
published by University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2004
order
from Pennsylvania Press online
To come to Burma, one of the few places where despotism still dominates,
is to take both a physical and an emotional journey and, like most Burmese,
to become caught up in the daily management of fear. Based on Monique
Skidmore's experiences living in the capital city of Rangoon, Karaoke
Fascism is the first ethnography of fear in Burma and provides a sobering
look at the psychological strategies employed by the Burmese people
in order to survive under a military dictatorship that seeks to invade
and dominate every aspect of life.
Skidmore looks at the psychology and politics of fear under the SLORC
and SPDC regimes. Encompassing the period of antijunta student street
protests, her work describes a project of authoritarian modernity,
where Burmese people are conscripted as army porters and must attend
mass rallies, chant slogans, construct roads, and engage in other
forms of forced labor. In a harrowing portrayal of life deep within
an authoritarian state, recovering heroin addicts, psychiatric patients,
girl prostitutes, and poor and vulnerable women in forcibly relocated
townships speak about fear, hope, and their ongoing resistance to
four decades of oppression.
"Karaoke fascism" is a term the author uses to describe
the layers of conformity that Burmese people present to each other
and, more important, to the military regime. This complex veneer rests
on resistance, collaboration, and complicity, and describes not only
the Burmese form of oppression but also the Burmese response to a
life of domination. Providing an inside look at the madness and the
militarization of the city, Skidmore argues that the weight of fear,
the anxiety of constant vulnerability, and the numbing demands of
the State upon individuals force Burmese people to cast themselves
as automata; they deliberately present lifeless hollow bodies for
the State's use, while their minds reach out into the cosmos for an
array of alternate realities. Skidmore raises ethical and methodological
questions about conducting research on fear when doing so evokes the
very emotion in question, in both researcher and informant. |
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Burma at the
Turn of the 21st Century
by Monique Skidmore
published by University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2005
ISBN 0 8248 2897 6
This is the first study in a half century of one of the least
known societies in the contemporary world. This book provides insight
into the evryday lives, concerns and values of the people of this reclusive
nation. Prominent anthropologists and religion scholars with in-depth,
long-term knowledge of central Burma offer detailed analyses of the
ways in which Burmese actively manage and create lives for themselves
in the shadow of a military dictatorship. their research croisses the
domains of religious, politicla and social life, examining public festivals
and performance, local-state relations, literary life, lottery frenzies,
mass mediators, political rumours and black humour, the value of children,
changing male identities and more in thsi impressive, wide-ranging collection. |
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