Aboriginal Homelands and Economy in Australia's Western Desert: Martu Ngurrara

Author:   Douglas W. Bird (The Pennsylvania State University) ,  Rebecca Bliege Bird (The Pennsylvania State University)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009548243


Pages:   75
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Aboriginal Homelands and Economy in Australia's Western Desert: Martu Ngurrara


Overview

This Element is about the interacting socio-ecological relationships of a contemporary Aboriginal foraging economy. In the Western Desert of Australia, Martu Aboriginal systems of subsistence, mobility, property, and transmission are manifest as distinct homelands and networks of religious estates. Estates operate as place-based descent groups, maintained in both material egalitarianism (sharing, dispossession, and immediate return) and ritual hierarchy (exclusion, possession, and delayed return). Interwoven in Martu estate-based foraging economies are the ecological relationships that shape the regeneration of their homelands. The Element explores the dynamism and transformations of Martu livelihoods and landscapes, with a special focus on the role of landscape burning, resource use practices, and property regimes in the function of desert ecosystems.

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Author:   Douglas W. Bird (The Pennsylvania State University) ,  Rebecca Bliege Bird (The Pennsylvania State University)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009548243


ISBN 10:   1009548247
Pages:   75
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: a burning economy; 2. Historical and political contexts; 3. The ecology of fire-stick farming; 4. Local organization: mobility, residence, and production; 5. The foraging economy; 6. Social organization: property, estates, and kinship; 7. Conclusion: going home to Martu country; Note on methodology and ethnographic writing; References.

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April RG 26_2

 

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