Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R.H. Mathews
Object category:
Elektronische Ressource
Person/Institution:
Publisher:
ANU E Press
Ort:
Acton, A.C.T.
Date:
2007
Language:
Englisch
Additional information
Abstract:
"Almost 90 years on from his death, this is the first book-length collection of the writings of Robert Hamilton Mathews. It has been a long wait for the Australian-born surveyor who began his career as an anthropologist at the age of 52 with the 1893 publication of a brief paper on New South Wales rock art. Apart from a few short booklets, Mathews book of 1905, Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria, was his only work of anthropology to be published as a freestanding volume. A reprint of a long article published the previous year, it was a modest tome in that age of doorstopper monographs - 'little more than a pamphlet' according to Mathews' friend, the British folklorist E.S. Hartland. There was certainly an expectation that a writer so prolific as Mathews would disseminate his work in a substantial book. As Arnold van Gennep, the Parisian anthropologist, pointed out to him, 'your publications are for the most part overlooked because they are scattered amongst a mass of periodicals and it is a very difficult matter to have them all at one time in hand ... '. Van Gennep recommended that Mathews immediately arrange for their 'publication in 2 or 3 volumes' - advice endorsed by Hartland who was enlisted to work with Mathews ornithologist son Gregory, then living in England, to place a manuscript with a London publisher (see Correspondence, this volume). But these efforts were unsuccessful and R.H. Mathews died in 1918 without ever publishing his magnum opus."--Provided by publisher.
Object text:
author, R.H. Mathews ; editor, Martin Thomas
Includes bibliographical references
Includes bibliographical references
Inhalt:
Introducing R.H. Mathews. 'Birrarak is the name given to me by the natives' -- Part 1: Rock Art and Daily Life. Contributions to the Ethnography of the Australians -- Rock Carvings and Paintings by the Australian Aborigines -- Plan of some Drawings carved or painted on Rock by the Natives of New South Wales, Australia -- Part 2: Kinship and Marriage. Social Organisation of Some Australian Tribes -- Remarks on the Natives of Australia -- The Natives of Australia -- Part 3: Mythology. Some Mythology of the Gundungurra Tribe, New South Wales -- A Giant in a Cave--An Australian Legend -- Australian Folk-Tales -- The Wareengarry and Karambal -- The Hereafter -- Part 4: Language. The Wailwan Language -- Language of the Kurnu Tribe, New South Wales -- Part 5: Ceremony. The Mŭltyerra Initiation Ceremony -- Initiation Ceremony of the Birdhawal Tribe -- The Bundandaba Ceremony of Initiation in Queensland -- Part 6: Correspondence. Letters to E.S. Hartland -- Letters to R.H. Mathews -- Letter to Moritz von Leonhardi -- RHM Bibliography.
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Created:
2023-04-13
Last changed:
2019-10-11
Added to portal:
2023-04-13
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