Expressive Genres and Historical Change

Product Description Modern anthropologists, unlike their classical predecessors, have observed Australian Aborigines in the field, rather than from the study. None, however, has spent as long as David McKnight in a single community. During a period of 35 years, involving some 20 fieldtrips, he has lived with the Mornington Islanders of northern Queensland for over five years. This intellectual tour de force combines dense ethnography about Australian kinship and marriage - the heart of their world - with major anthropological debate about theories of kinship. It thereby provides a unique and important contribution to kinship studies. McKnight shows how young Aborigines became increasingly determined to marry according to their own inclinations, defying the authority of the elders, who accused them of 'going the Whiteman's Way'. About the Author David McKnight held academic posts at the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Economics and the University of Western Ontario, before retiring on the Emeritus staff of the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. He was well known for his work on kinship and marriage, beginning his research amongst Australian Aborigines in 1966, and living with the people of Mornington Island in Northern Queensland for over five years and the Wik people of Aurukun in Cape York Peninsula for a year in addition to making brief visits to other Australian Aboriginal communities.