On Aboriginal Religion

W.E.H. Stanner, Francesca Merlan, L.R. Hiatt

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English

Sydney University Press
19 February 2014

History; Australasian & Pacific history; Religion & beliefs; Indigenous peoples; Anthropology

Anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner is perhaps most well known for coining the phrase the 'great Australian silence', addressing the culture of denial or 'conscious forgetting' regarding the history Australia since European arrival.

This reprint of On Aboriginal Religion pays tribute to the ongoing relevance of Stanner?s work. His research into Aboriginal religion was first published as a series of articles in the journal Oceania between 1959 and 1963. In 1963 the articles were published as the collection in as Oceania Monograph 11, which was later reprinted as a facsimile edition with introductory sections by Francesca Merlan and Les Hiatt (1989).

As Stanner writes in his introduction to the 1963 collection, 'I thought I should take Aboriginal religion as significant in its own right and make it the primary subject of study, rather than study it, as was done so often in the past, mainly to discover the extent to which it expressed or reflected facts and preoccupations of the social order'. It is this dedication to recording the beliefs and observing the practice of Aboriginal religion that has made this monograph so important.

By: W.E.H. Stanner
Introduction by: Francesca Merlan, L.R. Hiatt
Imprint: Sydney University Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 148mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 435g
ISBN: 9781743323885
ISBN 10: 1743323883
Pages: 326
Publication Date: 19 February 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Note to the 2014 edition by Peter White On Aboriginal religion: an appreciation by Francesca Merlan On Aboriginal religion: Stanner’s work by L.R. Hiatt Introduction by W.E.H. Stanner 1. The lineaments of sacrifice 2. Sacramentalism, rite and myth 3. Symbolism in the higher rites 4. The design-plan of a riteless myth 5. The design-plans of mythless rites 6. Cosmos and society made correlative

W.E.H. Stanner (1905 - 1981) was an anthropologist who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians. His work had a huge impact on Australian race relations. Francesca Merlan is a professor of anthropology at Australian National University. L.R. Hiatt (1931 - 2008) was a scholar of Australian Aboriginal studies.