Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Italian Australians – Social life and customs'
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1
Rozanna, Lilley. "Paperbark people, paperbark country : gender relations, past and present, amongst the Kungarakany of the Northern Territory." Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/275607.
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Not having the feeling of presenting a clearly identifiable product, I will explain some of the basic impressions that motivated this thesis, point out the targets it is aimed at, the polemics it engages in or opens and indicate something of the design of the work.
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Pritchard, Stephen (Stephen John) 1970. "Contested titles : postcolonialism, representation and indigeneity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand." Monash University, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, 2000. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7831.
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McBride, Gerald F. "Are there lessons to be learned by ecological economics from the wisdom of the Kaurna people?" Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envm119.pdf.
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Bibliography: leaves 64-66. Argues that the sustainable lifestyle of traditional Aboriginal communities acheived the teleological harmony suggested as a possible conceptual framework for the emerging area of study known as ecological economics.
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Gibson, Lorraine Douglas. "Articulating culture(s) being black in Wilcannia /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/70724.
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Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006.Bibliography: p. 257-276.
Introduction: coming to Wilcannia -- Wilcannia: plenty of Aborigines, but no culture -- Who you is? -- Cultural values: ambivalences and ambiguities -- Praise, success and opportunity -- "Art an' culture: the two main things, right?" -- Big Murray Butcher: "We still doin' it" -- Granny Moisey's baby: the art of Badger Bates -- Epilogue.
Dominant society discourses and images have long depicted the Aboriginal people of the town of Wilcannia in far Western New South Wales as having no 'culture'. In asking what this means and how this situation might have come about, the thesis seeks to respond through an ethnographic exploration of these discourses and images. The work explores problematic and polemic dominant society assumptions regarding 'culture' and 'Aboriginal culture', their synonyms and their effects. The work offers Aboriginal counter-discourses to the claim of most white locals and dominant culture that the Aboriginal people of Wilcannia have no culture. In so doing the work presents reflexive notions about 'culture' as verbalised and practiced, as well as providing an ethnography of how culture is more tacitly lived. -- Broadly, the thesis looks at what it is to be Aboriginal in Wilcannia from both white and black perspectives. The overarching concern of this thesis is a desire to unpack what it means to be black in Wilcannia. The thesis is primarily about the competing values and points of view within and between cultures, the ways in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people tacitly and reflexively express and interpret difference, and the ambivalence and ambiguity that come to bear in these interactions and experiences. This thesis demonstrates how ideas and actions pertaining to 'race' and 'culture' operate in tandem through an exploration of values and practices relating to 'work', 'productivity', 'success', 'opportunity' and the domain of 'art'. These themes are used as vehicles to understanding the 'on the ground' effects and affects of cultural perceptions and difference. They serve also to demonstrate the ambiguity and ambivalence that is experienced as well as being brought to bear upon relationships which implicitly and explicitly are concerned with, and concern themselves with difference.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 276 p. ill
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Everett, Kristina Lyn. "Impossible realities the emergence of traditional Aboriginal cultural practices in Sydney's western suburbs /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/84406.
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"22nd November, 2006".Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Dept. of Anthropology, 2007.
Bibliography: leaves 301-330.
Introduction -- Between ourselves -- Two (or three) for the price of one -- Community -- Bits and pieces -- Space painting or painting space -- Talkin' the talk. Bunda bunya miumba (Thundering kangaroos): dancing up a storm -- Welcome to Country: talkin' the talk -- Messing with ceremony -- 'Ethnogenesis' and the emergence of 'darug custodians' -- Conclusion.
The thesis concerns an Aboriginal community, members of which inhabit the western suburbs of Sydney at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This particular group of people has emerged as a cultural group over the last twenty-five years. In other words, the community did not exist before the advent of Aboriginal land rights in Australia. It might be right to suggest that without land rights, native title and state celebrations and inclusions of Aboriginal peoples as multicufturalism, this particular urban community would not and could not exist at all. That, however, would be a simplistic analysis of a complex phenomenon. Land rights and native title provide the beginning of this story. It becomes much more interesting when the people concerned take it up themselves. -- The main foci in the thesis are the cultural forms that this particular community overtly and intentionally produce as articulations of their identity, namely public speaking, dancing, painting and ceremony. I argue that it is only through these yery deliberate collective practices of identity-making that community identity can be produced. This is because the place that the group claims as its own - Sydney - is always already inhabited by 'us' (the dominant society). Analysis of these cultural forms reveals that even if the existence of the group depends on land rights and, attempts to attract the ultimate 'authenticity' bestowed by native title, members of this group are not conforming to native title rules pertinent to what constitutes 'genuine' 'Aboriginality' for the purposes of winning land claims. Their revived traditions are pot what the state prescribes as representative of 'authentic' urban Aboriginal culture. -- The thesis analyses the ways in which urban Aboriginal peoples are makipg themselves in the era and context of native title. It considers the consequences of being themselves.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 330, [8] leaves ill., maps
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Prout, Sarah. "Security and belonging reconceptualising Aboriginal spatial mobilities in Yamatji country, Western Australia /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/23030.
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"December 2006".Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 284-307.
Introduction -- Case-study area profile and methodology -- A walkabout race?: contemporary Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country -- State service provision and Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging: re-conceptualising Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging and the mainstream economy -- The ties that bind: negotiating security and belonging through family -- Conclusion.
This dissertation explores contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country, Western Australia, within the context of rural service provision by the State government. The central themes with which it engages are a) historical and contemporary conceptualisations of Aboriginal spatialities; b) the lived experiences of Aboriginal mobilities in the region; and c) the dialectical, and often contentious, relationship between Aboriginal spatial practices and public health, housing, and education services. Drawing primarily on a range of field interviews, the thesis opens up a discursive space for examining the cultural content and hidden assumptions in constructions of 'appropriate' models of spatial mobility. In taking a policy-oriented focus, it argues that the appropriate provision of basic government services requires a shift away from overly simplistic assumptions and discourses of Aboriginal mobility. Until the often subtle practices of rendering particular Aboriginal mobilities as irrational, deviant, and/or mysterious are challenged and replaced, deep-colonising practices in rural and remote Australia will persist. --The thesis reconceptualises contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country based upon an examination of dynamics and circumstances that undergird Aboriginal mobilities in the region. With this empirical focus, it argues that Aboriginal spatial practices are fashioned by the processes of procuring, cultivating and contesting a sense of security and belonging. Case study material presented suggests that two primary considerations inform these processes. A post-settlement history of contested alienation from family and country (both sources from which belonging and security were traditionally derived), and a changing engagement with mainstream social and economic institutions, have produced a context in which security and belonging are iteratively derived from a number of sources. Contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices therefore take a complex variety of forms. The thesis concludes that adopting the framework of security and belonging for interpreting contemporary Aboriginal mobilities provides a starting point for engaging more effectively and intentionally with dynamic Aboriginal spatial practices in service delivery policy and practice.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
x, 320 p. ill., maps
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Brown, Sarah. "Imagining 'environment' in Australian suburbia : an environmental history of the suburban landscapes of Canberra and Perth, 1946-1996." University of Western Australia. School of Humanities, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0094.
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Australia is a suburban nation. Today, with increasing concern regarding the sustainability of cities, an appreciation of the complexities of Australian suburbia is critical to the debate about urban futures. As a built environment and a cultural phenomenon, the Australian suburbs have inspired considerable scholarly literature. Yet to date, such scholarly work has largely overlooked the changing environmental values and visions of those shaping and residing within suburban landscapes, and the practices through which such values and visions are materialised in the processes of suburban development. Focusing on the post-war suburban landscapes of Canberra and Perth, this thesis centralises the environmental, political and economic forces that have shaped human action to construct suburban spaces, paying particular attention to the extent to which individual understandings and visions of 'environment' have determined the shape and nature of suburban development. Specifically, it examines how those operating within Australias suburbs, including planners, developers, builders, landscape designers and residents have imagined the 'environment', and how such imaginaries have shifted in response to varying spatial, temporal and ideological contexts. Tracing the shifting nature of environmental concern throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, it argues that despite the somewhat unsustainable nature of Australia's suburban landscapes, the planning and development of such landscapes has long been influenced by and has responded to differing understandings of 'environment', which themselves are the product of changing social, political and economic concerns. In doing so, this thesis challenges a number of perceptions concerning Australian suburbs, environmental awareness and sustainability. In particular, it contests the assumption that environmental concern for Australia's suburban development emerged with the urban consolidation debates of the 1980s and 1990s, and analyses a range of environmental sensibilities not often acknowledged in current histories of Australian environmentalism. By examining, for example, how the deterministic and economic concerns of differing planning bodies, along with the aesthetic and ecological concerns of various planners, are intertwined with the housing and domestic lifestyle preferences of suburban homeowners, this history brings to the fore the often conflicting environmental ideas and practices that arise in the course of suburban development, and provides a more nuanced history of the diversity of environmental sensibilities. In sum, this thesis enhances our understandings of the changing nature of environmental concern and illuminates the complex, still largely misunderstood, environmental ideas and practices that arise in the processes of suburban development.
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Ngan, Lucille Social Sciences & International Studies Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences UNSW. "Identity and Life Course: A Long-term Perspective on the Lives of Australian-born Chinese." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40567.
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This thesis examines the construction of ?Chineseness? by Australian-born Chinese through their interactions with mainstream ?white? society and Chinese diasporic communities in Australia. It represents an interdisciplinary study based on qualitative research and critical analysis of forty-three in-depth interviews with Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia for three generations or more. Diasporic narratives, fraught with contentions over belonging and difference, often lead to ambiguous ramifications of identity formation. While the notion of hybridity problematises the unsettling boundaries of identities, there is still a continuing perception that ethnic identification decreases over successive generations, resulting in assimilation. However, contrary to this assumption, this study shows that subsequent generations also encounter complicated experiences involving both feelings of cultural ambivalence and enrichment. While the rewriting of identity takes place against the varying circumstances of resettlement, the experiences and transitions across the respondents? life course concurrently inscribes Chineseness onto their lives in diverse ways. Furthermore, Chineseness is continually (re)constructed through decentered connections with an imaginary homeland. Consequently, despite generational longevity, strong affinities with Australian society and longstanding national identities grounded in Australian culture, Chineseness is still a significant part of their identity, whether they willingly choose to associate with it or not. The focus on revaluating the concept of Chineseness and elucidating the sense of identity of sequential generations has important ramifications for the development of a more informed theoretical model for understanding the long-term effects of migration, especially on the process of identity formation and feelings of home and belonging.
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Adams, Christine. "Melancholic attachments : the making and medicalisation of Aboriginal 'loss'." Phd thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/109777.
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This thesis examines the loss of Aboriginal Australians as both an embodied
experience and a powerful form of identity-construction. The focus of research is
on southeast Australia where Aboriginal people, having suffered profound and
often violent dispossession and state-authorised intrusion into their lives and
communities, have been consistently defined in terms of their 'loss' of those
qualities seen to constitute 'authentic' Aboriginality. I show how Aborigines have
taken up and interacted with these dominant ascriptions of their identity such that
the experience of loss has become a constitutive quality of Aboriginality in
southern Australia, a pivotal basis of identification in public and political arenas.
Further, I demonstrate how Aborigines' experience of loss has been reframed in
dialectic with dominant forms of knowledge in changing socio-political milieux.
In particular, I contend that in the last decades of the twentieth century,
Aboriginal loss has been subsumed and redefined within the categories of
psychology and psychiatry. I argue that this psychologisation of Aboriginal
experience has significant ramifications in terms of how Aborigines are known
and come to know themselves.
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Wehner, Monica. "'On the margins of social distance' : expatriate memories of life in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, 1970-1995." Master's thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144274.
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Schwab, Robert. "The "Blackfella Way" : ideology and practice in an urban Aboriginal community." Phd thesis, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110284.
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This is a study of urban Aboriginal ideology, conducted in Adelaide, South
Australia. It addresses the issue of Aboriginal identity and argues that in order
to understand the Aboriginal sense of self it is necessary to examine the tension
between history, ideas, dispositions and social practice in the context of the
objective conditions of daily life. The thesis is that there exists among
Aborigines in Adelaide an ideational system they refer to as the "Blackfella
Way". An overview of the structure and content of the Blackfella Way in terms
of its two distinct and complementary dimensions, essence and style, is
presented. It is argued that this system is an historical, cognitive and social
construction which synthesizes the tone, texture, style, and mood of life and
provides a conceptual and practical framework through which individuals
formulate, think about &mi act in the world.
The process whereby the ideational system is translated into ideology and the
structural position of Aborigines in Adelaide reproducer :s also examined.
Consideration is given to the ways in which social and ideological formations
mediate the influence of external events and forces and shape human practice
are explored. It is argued that through the process of symbolic violence, the
limitations of the objective conditions become internalized and appropriated.
Objective conditions thus inform and frame the ideological system which
Aboriginal actors produce, reproduce and which ultimately reproduces the
existing imbalance of power.
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Clarke, P. A. (Philip Allan). "Contact conflict and regeneration : aboriginal cultural geography of the Lower Murray, South Australia / Philip Allan Clarke." 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21559.
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Bibliography: leaves 361-390.425, [50] leaves : ill. (chiefly col.), maps ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography and Anthropology, 1995
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Clarke, P. A. (Philip Allan). "Contact conflict and regeneration : aboriginal cultural geography of the Lower Murray, South Australia / Philip Allan Clarke." Thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21559.
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Carty, John Richard. "Creating country : abstraction, economics and the social life of style in Balgo art." Phd thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/109366.
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The translation of traditional Western Desert iconography, narrative conventions and ceremonial aesthetics into the medium of acrylic painting, and onto the emergent plane of 'Aboriginal Art', has been among the great artistic achievements of the modern era. Despite the wealth of scholarship dedicated to this phenomenon, key aspects of it remain obscured in anthropological and art historical analysis. Based on fieldwork in the Australian Western Desert community of Balgo, this thesis develops an ethnographic account of how 'Country' is created through abstraction, kin-based processes of transmission, and the economics of art. Combining methodologies from anthropology and art history, this research seeks to develop an appreciation of Western Desert abstraction as a socio-cultural process. Abstraction is treated not merely as a particular kind of distilled formalism that resonates visually with 20th Century Western art historical and critical notions, but as a conceptual and creative process linked to a deconstruction of form and reconfiguration of meaning. In Balgo art these processes have resulted in the iconographic forms of the desert graphic system being superseded by other aesthetic features of that same system, particularly the practice of 'dotting'. This thesis analyses the development of dotting and other technical innovations into 'styles', and explores how these styles have in turn become an object of exchange and contestation within Balgo. The thesis also grapples with another significant, and related, gap in the anthropological literature: that of the economic contexts around acrylic painting. While Aboriginal art is widely acknowledged as part of an economic system, the forms on canvas or bark are rarely analysed as themselves implicated in, responsive to and expressive of fields of economic influence and motivation. In order to move beyond the dominant ritual-oriented interpretations of desert painting, this research frames painting as a form of Aboriginal labour. I treat art as work. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the work of art, the thesis affords new interpretations around the novel forms on canvas as crystallizations of human action, as objectifications of value and the social processes that create it. In uniting the aesthetic and economic aspects of my analysis, I build a portrait of the way style develops between people who share camps and other resources. I show how the innovations and abstractions pioneered by individuals become sedimented in culture as tradition through processes of intergenerational transmission. In this context, as objectifications of practices of sharing and co-residence, the forms of acrylic Country in Balgo art can be understood not as representational, but as Country itself. Country in the form of acrylic dots, styles, entire paintings, or the relationship between paintings, is an embodiment or objectification of Aboriginal value that can be exchanged both within Balgo (between kin) and without (through the market) in the creation of other kinds of value. Through localised kin-based transmission of painting style and redistribution of artistic income, Balgo artists have recalibrated acrylic 'Country' as the customary basis of their economic autonomy.
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Lally, Elaine. "Yolngu marriage : an empirical analysis." Master's thesis, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/112479.
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The background to this thesis was in work undertaken by the author in
1982/83 in collaboration with Dr. Paul Jorion, then of the Department of
Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. This work entailed the
development of techniques for the computer analysis of genealogies,
looking specifically for genealogical relationships between spouses, and so
a detailed analysis of an extensive body of genealogical data provided a
logical topic for thesis research.
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Thomsen, Dana Arlene. "Managing overabundant and mobile wildlife: social and institutional dimensions of kangaroo harvest in South Australia." 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/57518.
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In South Australia, overabundant kangaroo populations are managed through commercial harvest. Kangaroo harvest rates over the past decade have averaged only 40% of the harvest quota despite strong demand for the product. With kangaroo populations increasing, the problem of low kangaroo harvest rate in South Australia requires research attention. Previous research regarding kangaroo harvest has focused on questions of biology and ecology and little attention has been directed towards advancing understanding of the human dimensions of kangaroo management. This research sought to fill this gap in knowledge. Qualitative research methods were most appropriate due to the focus on social and institutional dimensions of kangaroo management. Data were collected during interviews with people involved in commercial kangaroo harvest: landholders, harvesters and meat processors. The main topics covered were regnlations and policy, economic issues, the rights and interests of various industry stakeholders and South Australian harvest rates. The views of Aboriginal people were also sought including the significance of kangaroos to Aboriginal people, access to kangaroos for subsistence harvest, kangaroo management and the kangaroo industry. The main findings of this research are presented as a series of peer-reviewed articles: • Article I introduces the research topic and presents preliminary findings of this study. • Article 2 establishes that an increase in South Australia's low harvest rate is needed if kangaroo harvest is to make greater contributions to regional communities, and recommends institutional reform to meet this goal. • Article 3 examines the management regime for kangaroos in South Australia and shows how the informal rules in use are often incongruent with the formal rules established by management administrators. • Article 4 describes the undervalued position of landholders in the kangaroo industry and the obstacles to landholders deriving income from kangaroo harvest. • Article 5 discusses the cultural basis of Aboriginal perspectives on kangaroo harvest and includes suggestions for appropriate ways for Aboriginal people to contribute to kangaroo management. The main findings of this research were applied in a comparative study of kangaroo management with that of moose management in Finland. This study found that similar social and institutional factors impact on the management of moose and kangaroos. The broad lessons for wildlife management drawn from the comparative study are: • mobile wildlife resources require flexible management systems • stakeholder involvement is critical to management • hunters/harvesters are conservative of their resource base • declining harvester numbers need to be addressed through support, incentives and training. These lessons can be applied in part, or in whole, to other overabundant and mobile wildlife species. Thus this thesis makes contribution to kangaroo management by making specific recommendations for the industry, but also contributes to wildlife management in a broader sense through the application of findings to other species.http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1298303
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, 2007
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Joynt, Rose Ellen. "Using authentic multi-media material to teach Italian culture : student opinions and beliefs." 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/18128.
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This qualitative research aims to present students' beliefs about the role that culture plays in language learning and to understand their responses towards the use of authentic multi-media materials. Based on the results of the study, this dissertation describes the impact that authentic multi-media materials had on students' cultural knowledge and their overall language learning experience. The implications discussed in this study are based on students' responses and are relevant to foreign language instructors who are interested in the areas of culture teaching, authentic multi-media materials, students' perspectives, and autonomous learning. In particular, the dissertation presents a link between authentic multi-media materials and motivation based on Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory (2000). The results found in this study suggest that authentic multi-media materials are resources that could be utilized in the early stages of instruction in order to capitalize on students' inherent interest in the Italian culture, which in turn serves to motivate students to persist in their language study.text
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Louw, Andre Nathan. "The myth of the guiltless society. A socio-ethical appraisal of the experience of the aborigines in Australia since colonisation. Toward a theology of liberation for Australia." Diss., 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/889.
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This study is a focus on a small minority group within Australian society.
This study attempts to explore and expose the inherent injustices experienced by this Aboriginal group since colonization. Its major focus is the loss of their land and their human rights and dignity subsequent to this invasion/ colonization. It also attempts, subsequent to the High Court decision in favour of Aboriginal land ownership, to also theologically support that stance. This study exposes the heretical nature of the traditional theology and religious practices of the dominant white population. It also tries to show the correlation with the experience of the Maori people in New Zealand and how they lost their land to the British Monarch.
It then attempts some directives for reconciliation between these peoples and what could be done to restore the damage done since 1788.Theology
M.Th. (Systematic Theology)
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Edmonds, Frances. "‘Art is us’: Aboriginal art, identity and wellbeing in Southeast Australia." 2007. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/7112.
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Aboriginal arts practices in the southeast of Australia have, since the early years of colonisation, been rarely considered within the realm of authentic Aboriginal arts practices. Such attitudes were a reflection of the colonial encounter and associated attempts to assimilate the Aboriginal population with the White. This thesis explores Aboriginal arts practices and asserts that there has always been Aboriginal art in the southeast and that, despite the overwhelming effects of colonisation, the work of Aboriginal artists provides a distinct and definite counter-history to that endorsed by the dominant culture. Using published historical and contemporary accounts and recent interviews from Aboriginal artists and arts workers, this thesis investigates the continuation of the knowledge and practice of southeast Australian Aboriginal art and its connection to culture, identity and wellbeing. It explores the corresponding adaptations and changes to these practices as Aboriginal people contended with the ever-expanding European occupation of the region from 1834 onwards.This project adopted a collaborative research methodology, where members of the Aboriginal arts community were consulted throughout the project in order to develop a study which had meaning and value for them. The collaborative approach combined an analysis of historical data along with the stories collected from participants. By privileging the Aboriginal voice as legitimate primary source material, alternative ways of exploring the history of Aboriginal art were possible. Although the story of Aboriginal art in the southeast is also one of tensions and paradoxes, where changes in arts practices frequently positioned art, like the people themselves, outside the domain of the ‘real’, the findings of this project emphasise that arts practices assist people with connecting and in some cases reconnecting with their communities. Aboriginal art in the southeast is an assertion of identity and wellbeing and reflects the dynamic nature of Aboriginal culture in southeast Australia.