--------------------------------L-Elkin's subject is the medicine man. But this term, with its connota tions of chicanery and gullibility, scarcely con veys the importance such figures hold for Aborigines. The "clever ma n", as some English speakers cal l him, acquired wonderful powe rs through direct conta ct with the beings of the Dreamtime: the ra inbow serpent; the sky gods; the sp irits of the dead. He has come to this state through a long and rigo rous apprenticesh ip and an initiation of ter ro rs and ordeals beyond those that ordinary men undergo.He is what El kin calls a man of high deg ree and his ex periences have changed him utte rl y. He has died and come alive again; his ent ra ils have been taken out and replaced ;he has been swallowed by the rainbow serpent and x Preface regurgitated ; magic crystals have been put in his body; he has acquired an animal fa mil iar that dwells within him.As a result of such experiences, the med icine man can fly and travel ove r the ground at great speed ; he ca n an ticipate events and knows what is happening in fa raway pla ces. He ca n cu re and kill mysteriously. He can make ra in. He can ascend to the sky world on a magic cord that emana tes from his testicles. He ca n rol l in the fire without hurt; appea r and disappea r at will. It is, of cou rse, always easier to explain away the occult than to explain it, and the difficulties are acute in the pre sent case. is a secu lar screen for truths too sac red to be revealed to the uninitiated .' As Kenneth Maddock puts it, the novices are deceived only to be enlightened, and the outcome is not scepticism but fa ith.8We do not know that the initiated medicine man has undergone this kind of "d isillusioning" experience. As fa r as ordinary men are concerned, he has come face to fa ce Dutton, told me how, as a young drover, he had refused to take on the powers of a dying uncle. Rid ing home that n ig ht he saw the eu ro which was the old ma n's fa miliar accompanying him along a stretch of road and then turn ing off into the darkness.In the Centre, however, things are diffe rent. On t he basis of recent reports Elkin now thinks that the obitua ry he wrote fo r the medicine ma n was premature. He notes an interesting division of labour between black and white medic ine men in some places, and goes on to suggest that Introduction to Second EditionThirty one yea rs have gone by since the fi rst ed ition of this book was published. In the mea ntime more and fu ller in fo rmation on the making and powers of "Men of HighDeg ree" has become available, especially fo r the Kimberley Division of Western Australia, and the New South Wales north coast.Fu rther, a significant change has been occu rring recent ly in the attitudes of some welfare and health agencies, of ficia l and non-official, towa rds medicine-men. Where this is · so, they are no longer ignored as men without knowledge nor brushed aside as imposters. On the contra ry, their age old "professional" contribution to the wel l-being of their people is recognized, an...

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REACTION AND CULTURAL CONDITIONINGH E reaction of an aboriginal people to the presence and culture of an in-T trusive and settling people is not based necessarily on curiosity, acquisition and imitation. Such drives are familiar to us of the western world, even in cross-cultural situations; we might infer, therefore, that because our culture is comparatively rich, the less well-endowed peoples, when confronted with it, would desire to examine, acquire and imitate it.In Australian Aboriginal culture, however, the individual is trained not to show curiosity, indeed, not to be curious. Thus, during initiation he only looks at rites and objects when told to do so, and he does not ask the "why"; he waits until he is told-and that in instalments. Moreover, both men and women grow up accepting the fact that sections of knowledge are restricted to one or more groups, and are not free to all.With this background, the Aborigines consider quite naturally that the ways, possessions and beliefs of the white man are his secret, his own possession, and are not to be "taken by storm'' or imitated. They are just factually "another kind" and neither envy nor acquisitiveness is aroused. They do not expect the white man to pry upon their life-and this seldom occurs (anthropologists apart, who must make out a case for doing so), though the ordinary white man's motive for this lack of interest is not based on the idea of mutual respect for cultural tradition; it is very often just a matter of superiority and prestige. The native way of life is "queer," especially in the degree in which the Aborigines do not seem to act from the same motives or for the same inducements as the European.Further, imitation for the native is not imitation of the fortuitous, of the strange, but of the traditional, of the cultural, of the ways of the cult-heroesor "Dreamings" as the Australian Aborigines call these. Life consists in maintaining continuity with the past-the culture-stream-not in imitating the culturally unrelated exotic. In spite of this, many benefactors have been disappointed that Aborigines have shown no desire to join a mission or settlement and partake of the benefits-material and spiritual-which were openly displayed to them. But, of course, houses, and farming, church-going, and school were not only exotic; they also interfered with t,he established routine of nomadism and ritual.Likewise, acquisition is not a universal trait; it is itself an acquirement 164

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The Australian Aborigines: How to Understand Them. By A. P. Elkin. 4th Edition. Published by Angus and Robertson Ltd., Sydney and London. 1964. Pp. i‐xxii, 1–393 and 33 plates. Price A.45/‐.