The Warlpiri of the Central Australian Desert maintain links to each other and to their lands in ritual performances that recreate the Dreaming itineraries of Ancestral Beings, such as Fire, Water, the Honey Ant, or the Emu. Each Warlpiri "owns" at least one Dreaming, but the performances of Dreaming stories are generally overseen by "business" or ritual leaders who ensure their proper reenactment. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork at the Yuendumu settlement, Francoise Dussart shows how female ritual leaders transcend the ...
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The Warlpiri of the Central Australian Desert maintain links to each other and to their lands in ritual performances that recreate the Dreaming itineraries of Ancestral Beings, such as Fire, Water, the Honey Ant, or the Emu. Each Warlpiri "owns" at least one Dreaming, but the performances of Dreaming stories are generally overseen by "business" or ritual leaders who ensure their proper reenactment. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork at the Yuendumu settlement, Francoise Dussart shows how female ritual leaders transcend the rigid physical divisions that separate them from their male counterparts and how they function simultaneously as individuals, as women, as Warlpiri, and as members of residential kin groups. These women not only sustain the Warlpiri cosmology but also exercise power over such issues as mining disputes, land reclamation, and the production of acrylic paintings. Focusing on the elements of competition and obligation shared by ritual leaders of both sexes, Dussart explains how rituals conceptualized as a form of social currency are imbued with a value-laden sensibility of "winning" while expressing and maintaining social harmony. Contending that kinship may override gender in the production of ritual and that women can influence rituals from which they are excluded, Francoise Dussart explores the preeminence of kin and gender relations in the construction of social identity.
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Add this copy of The Politics of Ritual in an Aboriginal Settlement: to cart. $11.00, good condition, Sold by Murray's Book Exchange rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Menominee, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Smithsonian Books (DC).
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Good in good dust jacket. Ex-library. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 288 p. Contains: Illustrations. Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry (Hardcover). Audience: General/trade.
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