
Torres Strait Islanders
Custom and Colonialism
Jeremy Beckett(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 26. January 1990
Book
Paperback/Softback
268 pages
978-0-521-37862-8 (ISBN)
Description
The Torres Strait Islanders are Australia's 'other' indigenous minority. Their experience of colonialism and their reaction to their position in Australian society provides a striking counterpoint to that of the Aborigines. The author applies many years of study and work among the Torres Strait Islanders to provide a new account of their changing world in the islands and their changing role in Australia. A Melanesian people, the Torres Strait Islanders' cultural affinities originally lay with the Papuans to the north rather than the Aborigines to the south. But by the logic of European colonialism, they were made a part of the State of Queensland. The pearling industry has exploited their labour, but left them in occupation of their islands. The Queensland government has allowed them a degree of autonomy in local affairs which many would contrast with its approach to Aborigines. The Torres Strait Islanders have thus had the space in which to develop a rich and vital way of life that they still call 'island custom', which has, however, changed from that described in the classic anthropological research begun by A. C. Haddon just a hundred years ago. This provided the starting point for Dr Beckett, who has studied and worked with Torres Strait Islanders since the 1950s, and this book links the personal experience of the author, the professional insights of the anthropologist, and the perceptions of past and present held by the Islanders themselves.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
382 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-37862-8 (9780521378628)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
02/1988
Cambridge University Press
€49.60
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition

Book
02/1988
Cambridge University Press
€49.60
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
List of plates and maps; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. A 'tombstone opening' and the problem of island custom; 2. Pearlers, pastors and protectors; 3. Disastrous contact: 'army time' and after; 4. Reflections in a colonial mirror; 5. The Murray Islanders; 6. The Baduans; 7. Welfare colonialism; 8. The society of Islanders; Bibliography; Index.