Value Orientations: Australian Studies
Year: 1978
Type: article
Abstract: As early as 1938 Elkin, discussing traditional Aboriginal society, maintained that Aborigines are orientated collectively, or place high value on the extended kin group (Barwick, 1964; Becket, 1964; Fink, 1964), see themselves as existing in harmony with nature and have no conception of time in the European sense, but live only for the present and remember the past as an integral part of the present. Most anthropologists tend to agree with such propositions. (p.288) But, are these same values held by non-tribal Aboriginals in contemporary Australia? Certainly conventional wisdom suggests that they are (Eckermann, 1973, p.470). Similarly, there is widespread acceptance of non-Aboriginal Australians as individualistic, future oriented, preferring ‘doing’ to ‘being’, and placing emphasis on mastery over nature (Binnion, 1976, p.34). Is this so?
Author: D.R. Massey
Institution: The University of Queensland
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2493958798