Dingo Makes Us Human: Life and Land in an Australian Aboriginal Culture

by Deborah Bird Rose

This original ethnography brings indigenous people's stories into conversations around troubling questions of social justice and environmental care. Deborah Bird Rose lived for two years with the Yarralin community in the Northern Territory's remote Victoria River Valley. Her engagement with the people's stories and their action in the world leads her to this analysis of a multi-centred poetics of life and land. The book speaks to issues that are of immediate and broad concern today: traditional ecological knowledge, kinship between humans and other living things, colonising history, environmental history, and sacred geography. Now in paperback, this award-winning exploration of the Yarralin people is available to a whole new readership. The boldly direct and personal approach will be illuminating and accessible to general readers, while also of great value to experienced anthropologists.

Genres: Anthropology

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 1992

Reviews

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the years since the 1967 Referendum that gave them self-determination, the Yarralin people of the Northern Territory moved off the cattle stations to which they were indentured, and onto their own land. Deborah Bird Rose presents an excellent ethnography of these people in 'Dingo Makes Us Human'. An American-born researcher, she is now a Professor in the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at Macquarie University, Sydney. The title refers to a very poignant (and kind of funny) story in which the Dingo and Moon have a competition, which the dingo loses - and thus, death occurs. This is the reality of humanity and the key concept of the book; the transition of present time into The Dreaming.

The Dingo is a culturally important animal to Australian indigenous people, and if you're looking for a cute book about dogs, then don't read this text. It deserves attention to the indigenous voices within it, their struggles, pains and attempts to preserve their rich traditional life. I'm sure that much has changed since 1992 when her ethnographic work was done, but at the same time, indigenous Australian history is well worth the attention that it takes to read this book and to honor the concepts within it.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really about Australian Anthropology and the Society of the Yarralin in Australia.
The title is, however, fitting, although "dog" would probably have been a better choice, because the author himself says that in the published dreamtime stories dingoes are not seen as anything other than dogs.
Who is interested while find something of the cultural experiences and dream-time status of dogs in these individuals and the society of Yarralin. The status of the dog covers protector, enemy, ancestor, creator, etc.