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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2017

Yolngu totemics: heterogeneity and relatedness in a land full of totems

Résumé

In this paper, I introduce the concept of “totemics” to think through the complex ways in which Yolngu groups from north-east Arnhem Land identify with and relate to various beings of their environment. Initially conceived as a tongue-in-cheek way to approach the incredibly daunting body of anthropological literature on Australian Aboriginal totemism, this notion takes up William Stanner’s suggestion to “deal with totems rather than with Totemism” (Religion, totemism and symbolism, 1965: 158). My presentation will focus on the analysis of two quotations recorded some thirty years apart of two ceremonial leaders, a father and a son, of the Gupapuyngu clan. Both quotes unfold as poetic self-portraits that anchor the deep identity of the speakers in constellations of places and species. I consider how these men perceive themselves as persons in relation to other beings and things, which include, in these particular cases: animals, plants, ancestral beings, ritual objects and designs, songs, sacred names and ghost spirits. In other words, I attend to some ways in which this social complexity can be discursively constructed, by men, but also by women, in north-east Arnhem Land.
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Dates et versions

hal-01687363 , version 1 (18-01-2018)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01687363 , version 1

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Jessica de Largy Healy. Yolngu totemics: heterogeneity and relatedness in a land full of totems. European Society for Oceanists, Jul 2017, Munich, Germany. ⟨hal-01687363⟩
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