| ISBN |
9781921313240 (pbk.) |
| Author |
Mathews, R. H. (Robert Hamilton), 1841-1918 |
| Title |
Culture in translation : the anthropological legacy of R.H. Mathews / edited by Martin Thomas ; translations from the French by Mathilde de Hauteclocque and from the German by Christine Winter. |
| Publisher and/or associated date/s |
Canberra : ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Inc., c2007. |
| Description |
xxii, 267 p. : ill., maps, port. ; 26 cm. |
| Series |
Aboriginal history monograph 15 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (at chapter ends) |
| Contents |
Introducing R.H. Mathews. 'Birrarak is the name given to me by the natives' -- Part 1 Rock Art and Daily Life. Contributions to the Ethnography of the Australians -- Rock Carvings and Paintings by the Australian Aborigines -- Plan of some Drawings carved or painted on Rock by the Natives of New South Wales, Australia -- Part 2 Kinship and Marriage. Social Organisation of Some Australian Tribes -- Remarks on the Natives of Australia -- The Natives of Australia -- Part 3 Mythology. Some Mythology of the Gundungurra Tribe, New South Wales -- A Giant in a Cave--An Australian Legend -- Australian Folk-Tales -- The Wareengarry and Karambal -- The Hereafter -- Part 4 Language. The Wailwan Language -- Language of the Kurnu Tribe, New South Wales -- Part 5 Ceremony. The Mŭltyerra Initiation Ceremony -- Initiation Ceremony of the Birdhawal Tribe -- The Bundandaba Ceremony of Initiation in Queensland -- Part 6 Correspondence. Letters to E.S. Hartland -- Letters to R.H. Mathews -- Letter to Moritz von Leonhardi -- RHM Bibliography. |
| Summary |
"Almost 90 years on from his death, this is the first book-length collection of the writings of Robert Hamilton Mathews. It has been a long wait for the Australian-born surveyor who began his career as an anthropologist at the age of 52 with the 1893 publication of a brief paper on New South Wales rock art. Apart from a few short booklets, Mathews book of 1905, Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria, was his only work of anthropology to be published as a freestanding volume. A reprint of a long article published the previous year, it was a modest tome in that age of doorstopper monographs - 'little more than a pamphlet' according to Mathews' friend, the British folklorist E.S. Hartland. There was certainly an expectation that a writer so prolific as Mathews would disseminate his work in a substantial book. As Arnold van Gennep, the Parisian anthropologist, pointed out to him, 'your publications are for the most part overlooked because they are scattered amongst a mass of periodicals and it is a very difficult matter to have them all at one time in hand ... '. Van Gennep recommended that Mathews immediately arrange for their 'publication in 2 or 3 volumes' - advice endorsed by Hartland who was enlisted to work with Mathews ornithologist son Gregory, then living in England, to place a manuscript with a London publisher (see Correspondence, this volume). But these efforts were unsuccessful and R.H. Mathews died in 1918 without ever publishing his magnum opus."--Provided by publisher. |
| Subjects |
Mathews, R. H.(Robert Hamilton),1841-1918 |
| Aboriginal Australians -- Social life and customs |
| Aboriginal Australians -- Languages |
| Ethnology -- Australia |
| Other Authors &/or Associated Persons |
Thomas, Martin Edward |
| De Hauteclocque, Mathilde |
| Winter, Christine |
| Other Corporate Bodies |
Aboriginal History Inc |
| Series |
Aboriginal history monograph 15. |
| Call number |
305.89915 AHM no. 15 |
