Overview

In the third edition of Return to Eden, David H. Turner returns to his groundbreaking study of the Indigenous people of Amagalyuagba in northern Australia. As in the first two editions, published in 1989 and 1996, Turner recounts the Indigenous people's own theoretical interpretation of their society and history, and brings that interpretation to life in a journey with them through the sacred landscape of Bickerton Island, Groote Eylandt, and the adjacent mainland. In a new preface, Turner reflects on his fieldwork and on the fate of the people of the region, whose way of life continues to be challenged by mining, economic development, and the effects of ongoing contact with the outside world. Turner argues that the worldview of the people he studied may, in fact, allow access to a deeper and more meaningful interpretation of reality itself-a perspective that could prove of utmost importance in addressing the global challenges of the twenty-first century. ""Return to Eden is written by a Professor of Anthropology, published in a Religious Studies series, and destined to cause profound concern, perhaps even to infuriate, scholars from both disciplines. Can a book ask for any higher praise? If publications are to be prized for their ability to stimulate, for their capacity to present the world in a new light, and so to persuade us to view others afresh, then David Turner has surely given us one of the finest ethnographies Aboriginal studies has yet to see."" -Tony Swain, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, on the first edition ""Turner, who is well known in Aboriginalist circles, has carried out anthropological research in northern Australia, in particular Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island (Amagalyuagba), in several periods between 1969 and 1986. The book represents the accrued wisdom of his long involvement with Aboriginal studies."" -Erich Kolig, Otago University, Man, on the first edition

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9781772443875

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David Turner is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having taught and conducted research in the Department of Anthropology and Centre for Religious Studies since 1975. His early interest in the Indigenous peoples of Australia took him to the University of Western Australia in Perth, where he completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology (with special commendation) in 1971. Following this he established the Aboriginal Studies program at the Australian National University. In 1973 he returned to Canada to teach, first at the University of Manitoba and then at the University of Toronto. His other books include Tradition and Transformation: A Study of Aborigines in the Groote Eylandt Area, Northern Australia and Return to Eden: A Journey through the Promised Landscape of Amagalyuagba. For Rock's Mills Press he has written Life to the Power of Nothing and Pathway to the Stars: Playing for Alexa. He currently resides near his home town of Perth, Ontario.

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