Tracing change in family and social organisation in Indigenous Australia, using evidence from language. This project provides new approaches to knowing the ancient heritage of Australia and its first people through the distinctive ways in which they managed and talked about their family and social relationships. These relationships are the key to how they have survived, winning a livelihood from a difficult environment. The project has practical application in Native Title and land management, a ....Tracing change in family and social organisation in Indigenous Australia, using evidence from language. This project provides new approaches to knowing the ancient heritage of Australia and its first people through the distinctive ways in which they managed and talked about their family and social relationships. These relationships are the key to how they have survived, winning a livelihood from a difficult environment. The project has practical application in Native Title and land management, and in understanding the changes in Indigenous family structures which impact on their health and well-being. For the mainstream population too, confronted by influences destabilising the family, this study will also help us understand how and why family organization changes.Read moreRead less
The Long-term Dynamics of Higher Order social Organisation in Aboriginal Australia. The two principal aims of the project are to show: that the Holocene prehistory of Australia was dynamic, involving significant expansion and migration of language groups; and, that in such expansion, migration, and resistance to them, higher-order social groupings were formed: the ‘nations’ reported by earlier anthropology and the ‘cultural blocs’ of recent anthropology. Evidence will come from comparative lingu ....The Long-term Dynamics of Higher Order social Organisation in Aboriginal Australia. The two principal aims of the project are to show: that the Holocene prehistory of Australia was dynamic, involving significant expansion and migration of language groups; and, that in such expansion, migration, and resistance to them, higher-order social groupings were formed: the ‘nations’ reported by earlier anthropology and the ‘cultural blocs’ of recent anthropology. Evidence will come from comparative linguistics, anthropology, and the role of geography in the distribution of social groupings, principally in subtropical Eastern Australia but also in the Victoria River district and Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. This project challenges the dominant view of static Indigenous Australia pre-colonially, and will benefit Native Title anthropology.Read moreRead less
Howitt & Fison’s anthropology. Howitt & Fison’s anthropology. This project will systematically analyse nineteenth century anthropologists Lorimer Fison and A.W. Howitt’s accounts of Indigenous kinship, social organisation, and local languages, and historical encounters between settlers and Indigenous people. This project will assemble Fison and Howitt’s meticulous records into best-practice digital formats, with widely accessible interactive data presentation, and bring these extraordinary recor ....Howitt & Fison’s anthropology. Howitt & Fison’s anthropology. This project will systematically analyse nineteenth century anthropologists Lorimer Fison and A.W. Howitt’s accounts of Indigenous kinship, social organisation, and local languages, and historical encounters between settlers and Indigenous people. This project will assemble Fison and Howitt’s meticulous records into best-practice digital formats, with widely accessible interactive data presentation, and bring these extraordinary records to the broadest possible community. This research, which integrates anthropology, history and linguistics, is expected to open up new dimensions in Australian history, anthropological theory, and Australian linguistics.Read moreRead less
Children's language learning and the development of intersubjectivity. How do children learn languages? How do they learn to understand the intentions and perspectives of others, and coordinate their own with them? Based on research in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, this project will answer these questions, showing how the two processes are related to each other by studying them in a cross-cultural way.