Depicting cross-cultural interaction: figurative designs in wood, earth and stone from south-east Australia

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Author(s)
Taçon, PSC
South, B
Hooper, SB
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2003
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We examine Aboriginal wooden artefacts traded between European and Aboriginal Australians in south-east Australia in order to gain insight into the impact of cross-cultural interaction on Aboriginal art traditions. Although we focus on wooden objects with figurative designs made and exchanged over the past 150 or more years, as well as their links to earlier ground, tree and rock-art traditions, the study contributes to a larger understanding of cultural change not well documented with ethnography. Information from 469 individual pieces in 90 private and public collections, is summarised, along with the development of ...
View more >We examine Aboriginal wooden artefacts traded between European and Aboriginal Australians in south-east Australia in order to gain insight into the impact of cross-cultural interaction on Aboriginal art traditions. Although we focus on wooden objects with figurative designs made and exchanged over the past 150 or more years, as well as their links to earlier ground, tree and rock-art traditions, the study contributes to a larger understanding of cultural change not well documented with ethnography. Information from 469 individual pieces in 90 private and public collections, is summarised, along with the development of individual, community and regional styles. A theory about the role of such material culture during changing times in south-east Australia is outlined. More generally, it is argued that material culture both mediates and expresses change, with figurative motifs and storytelling through pictures particularly effective when communicating to diverse groups of people of varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
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View more >We examine Aboriginal wooden artefacts traded between European and Aboriginal Australians in south-east Australia in order to gain insight into the impact of cross-cultural interaction on Aboriginal art traditions. Although we focus on wooden objects with figurative designs made and exchanged over the past 150 or more years, as well as their links to earlier ground, tree and rock-art traditions, the study contributes to a larger understanding of cultural change not well documented with ethnography. Information from 469 individual pieces in 90 private and public collections, is summarised, along with the development of individual, community and regional styles. A theory about the role of such material culture during changing times in south-east Australia is outlined. More generally, it is argued that material culture both mediates and expresses change, with figurative motifs and storytelling through pictures particularly effective when communicating to diverse groups of people of varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
View less >
Journal Title
Archaeology in Oceania
Volume
38
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2004 University of Sydney. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Linguistics
Archaeology