Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies

by Bruno David (Editor), Ian McNiven (Editor), Bryce Barker (Editor)

Revealing the ancient past of Aboriginal Australians to be one of longterm changes in social relationships and traditions—as well as in the active management and manipulation of the environment—this account encourages a deeper appreciation of the ways Aboriginal peoples have engaged with and constructed their worlds. The study also solicits a deeper understanding of the contemporary political and social context of research and the insidious impacts of colonialist philosophies.

Genres: Australia

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Bruno David est un naturaliste français spécialisé en paléontologie et en sciences de l’évolution et de la biodiversité. Depuis 2015, il est président du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN).

Il a été chercheur au CNRS et directeur de l’unité Biogéosciences à l’Université de Bourgogne. Paléontologue et biologiste marin, ses recherches l’ont conduit à explorer l’évolution de la biodiversité à partir de modèles actuels comme fossiles. Bruno David a participé à plusieurs grandes missions océanographiques, notamment dans l’Océan Austral, la mer des Caraïbes et dans le Pacifique avec le submersible Nautile.

Reviews

[Michael Lever · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is effectively a festschrift for Harry Lourandos, comprising a series of articles around Lourandos' best known theoretical contribution; 'intensification' and also what was less known to me, his concept of 'complexification'. Admittedly, I had not investigated either of these concepts to the extent that they warranted having been reluctant to study what appeared to be the subject of dead-horse-flogging debates at Australian archaeological conferences, held between intransigent combatants which most of the audience endured in eye-rattling boredom. But then again, any theory is generally enough to reduce most Australian archaeologists to eye-rattling boredom.

The papers come from a variety of perspectives, but are generally distinguished by an anthropological approach which does not treat the archaeological record as fossilised and static, nor do they treat peoples relationships to material in formulaic or simplistic manner.

As is often the case, particularly with authors such as John Bradley who has two pieces in this work (one co-authored), there may not be an immediate application to archaeological practice. Nevertheless, the concepts introduced are sufficiently powerful, complex and challenging that simply thinking them through fully will inevitably result in change to archaeological methodologies.