The Law of the Land: A Review Article

This is a review article of the book Native Title Corporations: A Legal and Anthropological Analysis from the point of view of anthropology. I begin by highlighting the development of Anglo‐Australian social anthropology from such figures as Radcliffe‐Brown and Fortes, who were heavily influenced by regulatory and normative models from the domain of legal and judicial scholarship and speculate on the contemporary conditions by which this original social anthropological metaphor has apparently achieved a new literalisation. I criticise the legalistic appropriation of anthropological and ethnographic methodology that this book makes explicit, and finally, I express scepticism for the future success of the prescribed body corporate, as described in the Native Title Act (1993), as a model for the possession, transmission and elaboration of indigenous rights to country.     

Materialising Oceania: New ethnographies of things in Melanesia and Polynesia

Oceania occupies an intriguing place within anthropology’s genealogy. In the introduction to this collection of essays, we examine the role of the ethnography of Oceania in the development of our anthropological perspectives on materialisation, the dynamic process by which persons and things are inter‐related. Building upon the recent resurgence of theoretical interests in things we use the term materialisation (rather than material culture or materiality) to capture the vitality of the lived processes by which ideas of objectivity and subjectivity, persons and things, minds and bodies are entangled. Taking a processual view, we advocate for an Oceanic anthropology that continues to engage with things on the ground; that asks what strategies communities use to materialise their social relations, desires and values; and that recognises how these processes remain important tools for understanding historical and contemporary Oceanic societies. Examining these locally articulated processes and forms contributes to a material (re)turn for anthropology that clarifies how we, as scholars, think about things more widely.     

Tangible evidence of historic Australian indigenous savanna management

Knowledge of historic indigenous management practices in north Australian tropical savannas can benefit contemporary management by providing a long‐term ecological context. This study provides understanding of how indigenous peoples managed their resources during the period of colonization by Europeans. Traditional management practices and resource use were observed by the European explorers and missionaries, anthropologists and ethnographers who followed. The historic record shows that the savannas were managed intensively by indigenous peoples, even during the colonization era. Across the region they used fire throughout the dry seasons, which is recognized by ecologists today. Importantly, and not previously reported in the ecological literature, they constructed water wells that provided them with extended use of country into the dry seasons, built and managed fisheries to enhance and extend their food supplies, and created extensive walking paths. These findings are significant because previous ecological research has assumed implicitly that indigenous people in the region were dependent on natural waters and therefore subject to seasonal availability of water to enable them to penetrate and live in dry country, and has given scant acknowledgement of manipulation of resources. The anthropological studies were compromised by the devastating social disruptions caused by the colonizers (mostly cattle ranchers and miners) and subsequent missionaries and government administrators. Despite these disruptions, the evidence demonstrates continuity of knowledge and management practices in much of the region. This history provides contemporary ecologists and managers with evidence of consistent patterns of resource management from earlier times. The evidence also shows that indigenous people were less at the mercy of the environment than has been assumed previously. The combined evidence suggests that contemporary management should consider that traditional management practices over many thousands of years were active and ubiquitous, and continued into the present era and probably shaped the biota of the region.     

Introduction: Current Directions in Australian Anthropologies of the Environment

Environmental anthropology is an expanding field in Australia. Extensive research on Aboriginal relationships to land and natural resources has provided the foundation for growing anthropological interest in the interactions of other Australians with the biophysical environments they inhabit. Australian‐based anthropologists also continue to contribute to research on environmental beliefs and practices in other parts of the world. This paper provides a brief overview of previously explored themes in this field as a precursor to introducing new research and proposing additional areas of research. It is suggested that these could be usefully developed to enhance anthropological contributions to debates about environmental change in Australia and surrounding regions. We argue that there are roles for anthropologists as `cultural translators' in cross‐disciplinary engagements with environmental scientists and natural resource managers; as cultural theorists skilled at documenting and interpreting changing environmental attitudes; and as environmental advocates pursuing the knowledge needed to create more ecologically sustainable human communities. We also suggest that Australian anthropologies of the environment can make valuable theoretical and ethnographic contributions to this important international field of study.     

Ecological and evolutionary implications of food subsidies from humans

Human activities are the main current driver of global change. From hunter‐gatherers through to Neolithic societies–and particularly in contemporary industrialised countries–humans have (voluntarily or involuntarily) provided other animals with food, often with a high spatio‐temporal predictability. Nowadays, as much as 30–40% of all food produced in Earth is wasted. We argue here that predictable anthropogenic food subsidies (PAFS) provided historically by humans to animals has shaped many communities and ecosystems as we see them nowadays. PAFS improve individual fitness triggering population increases of opportunistic species, which may affect communities, food webs and ecosystems by altering processes such as competition, predator–prey interactions and nutrient transfer between biotopes and ecosystems. We also show that PAFS decrease temporal population variability, increase resilience of opportunistic species and reduce community diversity. Recent environmental policies, such as the regulation of dumps or the ban of fishing discards, constitute natural experiments that should improve our understanding of the role of food supply in a range of ecological and evolutionary processes at the ecosystem level. Comparison of subsidised and non‐subsidised ecosystems can help predict changes in diversity and the related ecosystem services that have suffered the impact of other global change agents.     

Cosmologies of freedom and Buddhist self‐transformation in the Mongolian gold rush

This article examines how Mongolian Buddhist monks view the freedom they have experienced since the fall of Soviet socialism in 1990. Whereas the anthropological literature on postsocialism tends to focus on political and economic transformations, I argue that contemporary Mongolian politics points to the coexistence and interdependence of human and nonhuman agents. The article highlights how, in the context of the country's current mining boom, postsocialist politics requires attention to contemporary religious practices and spiritual beings beyond the ‘secular’. Considering emerging forms of Buddhist environmentalism, I describe how the freedom projects of Mongolian monks crystallize the intersection of Soviet socialist materialism, neoliberal individualism, and a Buddhist ethics of self‐transformation.     

Neutral lipid fatty acid composition as trait and constraint in Collembola evolution

Functional traits determine the occurrence of species along environmental gradients and their coexistence with other species. Understanding how traits evolved among coexisting species helps to infer community assembly processes. We propose fatty acid composition in consumer tissue as a functional trait related to both food resources and physiological functions of species. We measured phylogenetic signal in fatty acid profiles of 13 field‐sampled Collembola (springtail) species and then combined the data with published fatty acid profiles of another 24 species. Collembola fatty acid profiles generally showed phylogenetic signal, with related species resembling each other. Long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, related to physiological functions, demonstrated phylogenetic signal. In contrast, most food resource biomarker fatty acids and the ratios between bacterial, fungal, and plant biomarker fatty acids exhibited no phylogenetic signal. Presumably, fatty acids related to physiological functions have been constrained during Collembola evolutionary history: Species with close phylogenetic affinity experienced similar environments during divergence, while niche partitioning in food resources among closely related species favored species coexistence. Measuring phylogenetic signal in ecologically relevant traits of coexisting species provides an evolutionary perspective to contemporary assembly processes of ecological communities. Integrating phylogenetic comparative methods with community phylogenetic and trait‐based approaches may compensate for the limitations of each method when used alone and improve understanding of processes driving and maintaining assembly patterns.     

In the red: substances and materials in the Australian Western Desert

This article discusses the diversity, distribution, and qualities of materials and substances categorized as red among Pitjantjatjara- and Yankunytjatjara-speaking Western Desert Aboriginal people: An angu. Valued red materials and substances include elements of the encultured landscape – country – such as ochre, timber, food, blood, and fire, alongside cloth and other industrially produced materials. Previous scholarship defines reds among central Australian Aboriginal cultures only in static symbolic terms as representing blood. Based on long-term fieldwork, this article discusses how An angu employ a system of analogy across domains which connects together red materials and substances with particular affordances. I argue that An angu conceptualize these red materials and substances as making visible kurunpa/spirit. This has implications for concepts of health and for constructing the local cultural value of consumer goods and substances found in country. Reds connect the mental and the material. The article contributes to studies of how contemporary An angu mediate relationships between kin and country and participate in a wider market economy. It addresses anthropological knowledge about, and the importance of, the materiality of colours and the role of coloured materials and substances in shaping local ontologies and epistemologies.     

“Always on the outside looking in.” A view of the 1969 Ethiopian elections from a rural constituency.*

Robert Paine's writings about the practice of state tutelage and the genesis of aboriginal peoples’ ethnopolitical strategies vis‐a‐vis the nation‐state have made signal contributions to anthropological understandings of “fourth world” relations. Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that the processes by which contemporary claims of aboriginality are being articulated are unproblematic in their consequences. In Canada, at least, there is reason to question whether the emerging ethnopolitics of aboriginality may not serve to maintain rather than to eliminate some crucial aspects of the subjection of aboriginal people to systems of state‐controlled tutetage.     

The Zagreb Skull Collection—The unique identified collection of human skulls from fetuses to centenarians

Skull anatomy and development have been extensively studied due to their significance in evolutionary biology, forensic anthropology, and clinical medicine. Bone collections are an indispensable resource for conducting such anthropological and anatomical studies. However, worldwide there are only few skull collections containing specimens covering the entire fetal and postnatal period. Herein we describe the Zagreb Skull Collection, an identified collection comprising more than 1100 skulls and skull bone sets from the early fetal period to centenarians. The Zagreb Skull Collection consists of two main parts: the unique Collection of Skull Bones containing 386 sets of separated skull bones from the early fetal period to adulthood and the Collection of Skulls containing 742 skulls (age range 4–101 years). The collection was the core source for numerous anatomical studies on the development, postnatal changes, and anatomical variations of the skull. However, the Zagreb Skull Collection is still an underexploited resource for anthropological, forensic, and anatomical studies with translatability to contemporary clinical practice.     

Syncretic Persons: Sociality,Agency and Personhood in Recent Charismatic Ritual Practices among North Mekeo (PNG)

This paper explores the syncretic accommodations made by North Mekeo (PNG) villagers arising from recent historical encounters with Catholic (Sacred Heart) missionaries over issues of ritual authenticity and effectiveness, personhood, and agency in a wider field of Christian evangelism and globalisation. Through a careful examination and comparison of pre‐existing ritual notions and practices (e.g., sorcery techniques, mortuary ritual performance, gender rituals) and the recent trends of commodification and enthusiastic Catholic charismatic performance, what might appear to be incongruous religious beliefs and practices are shown to possess numerous remarkably compatible similarities at the level of explicit cultural categorisation and ritual enactment. In accord with long‐standing anthropological arguments, recent North Mekeo syncretism thus consists of an integrated, albeit transformed rather than ‘confused’, mixing of indigenous and exogenous religious elements. Further, in this analysis of recent Melanesian religious change syncretism implies a novel conceptual convergence between syncretic processes and the dynamics of personhood, sociality and agency as construed in the framework of the ‘new Melanesian ethnography’.     

Review: Insect meal: a future source of protein feed for pigs?

Are insects the farm animal of the future? A key agenda for agricultural production systems is the development of sustainable practices whereby food and feed can be produced in an environmentally efficient manner. These goals require novel approaches to complex problems and demand collaboration between scientists, producers, consumers, government and the general population. The provision of feed for animals is a major contributor to land and water use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Further, overfishing and a reduction in available land and water resources on which crops can be grown has led to an increase in price of protein ingredients such as fish meals and oils and soybean meals. Determination of novel solutions to meet the feed protein requirements of production animals is key to the development of sustainable farming practices. The Australian pork industry aims to develop production systems that efficiently use available resources (such as feed and energy) and limit the production of emissions (such as manure waste and GHGs). Invertebrates (insects e.g. black soldier flies) are naturally consumed by monogastric and aquatic species, yet the large-scale production of insects for feed (or food) is yet to be exploited. Most insects are low producers of GHGs and have low land and water requirements. The large-scale production of insects can contribute to a circular economy whereby food and feed waste (and potentially manure) are reduced or ideally eliminated via bioconversion. While the concept of farm-scale production of insects as domestic animal feed has been explored for decades, significant production and replacement of traditional protein sources has yet to be achieved. This review will focus on the potential role of insect-derived protein as a feed source for the Australian pig production industry.     

The divergence of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management practices on Wik traditional lands,Cape York Peninsula,Northern Australia

Fire has been a critical component of Aboriginal culture and natural resource management in Australia for millennia. Aboriginal fire management in Northern Australia is widespread and, in some more remote areas, has continued relatively undisrupted despite widespread changes in tenure and land use. For the Wik people of Western Cape York, there has been a continued connection to their culture and traditional lands. Recently, Wik traditional owners have formed a ranger program which has secured funding to manage contemporary land management issues. This includes the landscape‐scale management of fire for biodiversity conservation and greenhouse gas abatement. Because the work is being conducted by Aboriginal people, with consent from traditional owners and on their traditional lands, there is an assumption that the activities are compatible with historical traditional land management and cultural practices. In this study, we use participatory action research to compare contemporary fire management with the current understanding of traditional Aboriginal fire management to assess objectively the compatibility of these two paradigms. We do this by combining the experience and understanding of traditional owners with anthropological and ecological perspectives. We find that contemporary fire management is applied across traditional cultural boundaries using methods such as aerial incendiaries. Financial incentives and contractual obligations associated with fire management are externally driven or include modern considerations such as the protection of infrastructure. In contrast, traditional fire management was the prerogative of traditional owners and was applied at fine scales for specific outcomes. Fire management was governed by rules that determined how people moved across the landscape and how resources were partitioned and shared. Supporting the implementation of Aboriginal burning alongside current fire management practices could lead to significant community engagement in such activities and is likely to have much better biodiversity and social outcomes.     

In Memoriam

A key element of the self‐critique in contemporary anthropology centres on the idea that categories such as culture and society have exaggerated human differences. This paper argues that the work of Anthony Cohen, which has attempted to frame “localities” as a new anthropological object, can be criticized on similar grounds. A close reading of Cohen's theoretical and ethnographic writings shows that the “anthropology of locality”, while claiming to be a critique of nationalhomogenization, in fact replicates ata lower level of scale features of the national units. Consideration of this particular example of the exaggeration of (local) difference, moreover, occasions reflection on the wider critique of generalization within anthropology.     

Mosquito traps for urban surveillance: collection efficacy and potential for use by citizen scientists

Mosquito‐borne diseases are a pervasive public health problem on a global scale, and effective management of them requires well‐designed surveillance programs for both vectors and pathogens. Mosquito traps are a common component of such programs, and their reach can be expanded by engaging citizen scientists. In this study in a southern Australian city, we compared the mosquito collection efficacy of two types of traps and assessed their suitability for use in citizen science programs. BG Sentinels and BG Gravid Aedes Trap (BG‐GAT) traps both collected Aedes and Culex species in similar proportions, albeit with the former collecting approximately nine times as many mosquitoes. However, BG Sentinels have a greater per unit cost than BG‐GATs and are restricted to deployment near power outlets. Importantly, despite being devised for collection of Aedes (Stegomyia) dengue vectors (such as Aedes aegypti), both traps can be effectively used in temperate climates for collection of a range of mosquito species. These traps could conceivably be used in citizen science programs to enhance the reach of surveillance at reduced cost.     

The Dynamics of Stasis: Historical Inertia in The Evolution of the Australian Family

This paper highlights the significant role the anthropological perspective with its broad comparative outlook, and its focused ethnographic observations, can play in understanding historical processes in general, and the under‐theorised processes of stasis and historical inertia in particular. It does so by engaging with the history of the white Australian family. It argues that the sense of radical shifts in the family is misplaced. Conceived of as a life trajectory, the nuclear family remains overwhelmingly dominant cognitively, culturally and normatively. The recent limited changes that have emerged largely in response to the increased cost of social reproduction, do not amount to an overwhelming shift, nor do they reflect major cultural or normative transformations. The continuities in the Australian family are consistent with the broad continuity in family practice in comparable metropolitan and settler European societies for well over a millennium. These continuities demand a historical explanation. The paper shows the inevitable conservative entailments of heterodox alternatives, and the conservative effects of the powerful cultural preconditioning of social agents' cognition. It also links the symbolic politics of family practice to the social politics of cultural and ideological production. More generally, the paper argues that stasis is no less historical, no less dynamic, and no less worthy of analysis and explanation, than are change and transformation; and, that stasis and transformation are not different processes, but rather intertwined facets of the always multi‐faceted historical process.     

Criteria for Native Food Plant Collection in Northeastern Brazil

Different criteria are used by human populations around the world in the selection of preferred natural resources. In this study, the following hypotheses were tested: 1) the preference for food native species is related to the number of uses for which the species are cited; 2) the categories of food and medicinal use equally influence the selection of a species as preferred; 3) the preference among native food species is related to its frequency and abundance in the areas of collection. Data collection on species preference was conducted in communities located near the Araripe National Forest (FLONA) in Ceará, Northeastern, Brazil. Both the hypothesis that the preference would relate to the number of uses attributed to species and the hypothesis that food and medicinal categories equally influence the selection of species as preferred ones were corroborated. It was concluded in this study that people optimize both use and collection of native resources using criteria such as the versatility of uses for species and the abundance of the resource in the preferred collection areas. It is believed that this trend may be an adaptive strategy adopted by local communities for the exploitation of native resources.     

Genetic variability,local selection and demographic history: genomic evidence of evolving towards allopatric speciation in Asian seabass

Genomewide analysis of genetic divergence is critically important in understanding the genetic processes of allopatric speciation. We sequenced RAD tags of 131 Asian seabass individuals of six populations from South‐East Asia and Australia/Papua New Guinea. Using 32 433 SNPs, we examined the genetic diversity and patterns of population differentiation across all the populations. We found significant evidence of genetic heterogeneity between South‐East Asian and Australian/Papua New Guinean populations. The Australian/Papua New Guinean populations showed a rather lower level of genetic diversity. F_ST and principal components analysis revealed striking divergence between South‐East Asian and Australian/Papua New Guinean populations. Interestingly, no evidence of contemporary gene flow was observed. The demographic history was further tested based on the folded joint site frequency spectrum. The scenario of ancient migration with historical population size changes was suggested to be the best fit model to explain the genetic divergence of Asian seabass between South‐East Asia and Australia/Papua New Guinea. This scenario also revealed that Australian/Papua New Guinean populations were founded by ancestors from South‐East Asia during mid‐Pleistocene and were completely isolated from the ancestral population after the last glacial retreat. We also detected footprints of local selection, which might be related to differential ecological adaptation. The ancient gene flow was examined and deemed likely insufficient to counteract the genetic differentiation caused by genetic drift. The observed genomic pattern of divergence conflicted with the ‘genomic islands’ scenario. Altogether, Asian seabass have likely been evolving towards allopatric speciation since the split from the ancestral population during mid‐Pleistocene.     

Language in fieldwork: Making visible the ethnographic impact of the researcher's linguistic fluency

This paper analyses the impact of the researcher's linguistic fluency or competence (or lack thereof) on the data collection process during fieldwork and subsequent analysis. We focus on researcher interaction with the field in a largely monolingual setting in Japan, and the multilingual setting of an international school in Indonesia. Researcher positionality during fieldwork shifts with their (perceived) linguistic fluency, which in turn affects the data. Despite the emphasis on reflexive ethnography, anthropological research rarely interrogates the impact of the researcher's linguistic fluency on the field. We attribute this silence to the perception that highlighting researcher language ability may compromise their ethnographic authority. In this paper we use self‐reflexivity to make visible the ethnographic impact that the researcher's language ability has on fieldwork processes. We argue that being self‐reflexive about our linguistic fluency, or lack thereof, does not necessarily compromise our analysis.