Aboriginal Homelands and Economy in Australia's Western Desert

Martu Ngurrara

von Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas W. Bird

75 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This Element is about the interacting socio-ecological relationships of a contemporary Aboriginal foraging economy. In the Western Desert of Australia, Martu Aboriginal systems of subsistence, mobility, property, and transmission are manifest as distinct homelands and networks of religious estates. Estates operate as place-based descent groups, maintained in both material egalitarianism (sharing, dispossession, and immediate return) and ritual hierarchy (exclusion, possession, and delayed return). Interwoven in Martu estate-based foraging economies are the ecological relationships that shape the regeneration of their homelands. The Element explores the dynamism and transformations of Martu livelihoods and landscapes, with a special focus on the role of landscape burning, resource use practices, and property regimes in the function of desert ecosystems.

• Reihe: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781009548243
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 30.04.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: Cambridge University Press