Responses to David Trigger's Article Anthropology Pure and Profane: The Politics of Applied Research in Aboriginal Australia (previous issue)

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Notes

 [1] Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, R. C. Mills Building A26, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia. Email: [email protected].

 [2] In 1992, under the pseudonym ‘Helen Demidenko’, Helen Darville published a work of fiction entitled The hand that signed the paper. It concerned the lives of Ukrainian workers in a Nazi death camp during World War II. Darville used her partly Ukrainian heritage, underlined by her nom de plume, to add legitimacy to an account that empathised with these workers and was also anti-Semitic. In 1993, the book received the prestigious Australian/Vogel award for literature. The award unleashed a debate that saw the book withdrawn and republished in 1995 under the name of ‘Helen Darville’. The debate raised the important prospect that there can be historical subjects the empathetic treatment of whom can only lead the writer to endorse, or ostensibly endorse, values that many would regard as anathema. This is not to say, however, that an interpretive, psychosocial account of such subjects cannot or should not be written. Such examples point to the limits of cultural relativism and also to the limits of empathy as an integral part of interpretive method. Participants in the Demidenko debate included Manne (1996) and Reimer (1996).

 [3] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory (accessed 14/12/11).

 [4] Anthropology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, Victoria Australia 3217. Email: [email protected].

 [5] Department of Anthropology, University of Bergen, Postboks 7800, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway. Email: [email protected] and Department of Anthropology, University College London. Email: [email protected].

 [6] School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building #14, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia. Email: [email protected].

 [7] School of Humanities and Social Science, The University of Newcastle, Room 348, Behaviour Science Building, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia. Email: [email protected].

 [8] School of Archaeology and Anthropology, AD Hope Building #14, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia. Email: [email protected].

 [9] The electronic discussion group of the Australian Anthropological Society.

[10] PO Box 3561, Alice Springs, NT 0871 Australia. Email: [email protected]. I thank Lee Sackett, Jim Wafer and Jenny Green for their helpful comments.

[11] ‘Practising’ in Australian English.

[12] For example, influenced by the ‘crisis of representation’ (see Rylko-Bauer, Singer and van Willigen 2006, 181) that arose in anthropology in the 1980s, I collaborated with Lander Warlpiri women on a book in which they spoke about their history and hopes for the future. While articulating their wish that their children would continue to practise Warlpiri law, the women made it clear that ‘this does not mean rejecting change. Rather, their hope is that, through education, their children can take over the management of all aspects of life at Willowra, so that they can achieve a greater sense of political and economic independence’ (Vaarzon-Morel 1995, 109). In a piece reflecting on the Willowra land claim a few years later (and saddened by what I perceived to be the punitive neglect by government of Willowra people because they had land rights), I stated ‘As with other colonised countries outside of Australia, restoration of land does not automatically mean that all economic, health, education and social problems are solved’ (Vaarzon-Morel 1998, 65).

[13] For example, Anna Maria Kenny, Diana James, Inga Kral and Fiona Walsh.

[14] Anthropology Program, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072 Australia. Email: [email protected].