Other‐than‐humans and the remaking of the social

Abstract

This article takes its starting‐point from an elderly Bardi woman's observation that elders ‘used to frighten’ younger generations with stories about various spirit beings. The beings she referred to are a group of malevolent beings inhabiting particular locations in her country, located in the northwest Kimberley region of Western Australia. Beginning with her observation that this is something that ‘used’ to happen, I consider the relationship between persons and different kinds of spirit beings amidst historical impetus for change. Political, economic, ecological, technological, and other impacts have occurred within the shifting context of progressive engagements with Western colonialism, capitalism, and the market economy, with implications for local ontologies. I suggest that these spirit beings are becoming less differentiated and consider the implications of this in terms of personhood and the constitution of the social, arguing that the disappearance of some of these beings is suggestive of a contraction of temporal and spatial extensions of personhood, with implications for relations with country.

The state as a whiteman, the whiteman as a/’hun: personhood, recognition, and the politics of knowability in the Kalahari

“…Engaging with the state from a small-scale perspective Globally, the colonial whiteman has taken different shapes and meanings: from an aspiring symbol of progress and development (Jacka 2007), to an immoral and repulsive Other (Basso 1988;Nyamnjoh and Page 2002), and anything in-between (Bashkow 2000;. In uncertain environments rife with social and environmental degradation, the whiteman has embodied malevolent spirits and monsters (Bubandt 2019;Glaskin 2018). And in some contexts, he has personified the state (Clark 1997).…”

Knowing and Being Known. Approaching Australian Indigenous Tourism Through Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Politics of Knowing

“…For more information on how these two linguistic groups came together, seeGlaskin 2002, 2018and Robinson 1973 This determination granted Bardi and Jawi people the 'right of possession and occupation as against the whole world', meaning, among other things, the exclusive right to refuse, regulate and control the use and enjoyment of their land by others on the mainland. The 2005 decision was appealed to the Full Court in 2010 to include exclusive rights on the islands as well as non-exclusive rights to the ocean (within the limit of three nautic miles) (see Sampi on behalf of the Bardi and Jawi people v State of Western Australia [2010] FCAFC 26).…”

The Returns of Recognition: Ngarinyin Experiences of Native Title, Encounter and Indeterminacy in the Kimberley Region of Northern Australia

“…In describing Ngarinyin experiences in the Kimberley, I contribute to a renewed interest in Aboriginal people's relations to country in view of contemporary developments in Aboriginal personhood (papers in Austin‐Broos and Merlan ). Anthropologists discuss Aboriginal people's altered perceptions of animals or spirits and feelings of ‘fear’ or affection, reproducing the idea that experiences of country are predominately tied to cultural and spiritual values (Burbidge ; Eickelkamp ; Glaskin ; Kearney ; Vincent ). The observations made in this article should be read alongside such contributions, where the value of time spent on country is in its potential to yield recognition and indeterminacy in relations with others.…”

“…An important aspect of this ‘relationship’ is how experiences may vary as a product of policy decisions and social patterns influencing Aboriginal people's lives and of the kinds of relationality that are desired (see also Hinkson ). In remote Australia at least, this includes the attenuation of relations to country and the diminishing opportunities for Aboriginal people to craft livelihoods on country largely as the result of government policy decisions (Glaskin :314; Vincent :154).…”

“…The vesting of social and cultural capital in remote places feeds romantic discourses that reproduce the idea that authentic Aboriginal selves are located in remote Australia (Bessire :470). Yet, as other scholars describe for Aboriginal people in various parts of Australia, the attenuation of connections to country has had a range of impacts, particularly on cosmologies and personhood more generally (Burbidge ; Glaskin , ; Kearney ; Vincent ). Challenging ‘nostalgic views’ of Aboriginal personhood has meant moving beyond analyses which construct country as a cultural vestige, while at the same time elevating Aboriginal people's phenomenological and relational experiences (Hinkson ).…”