Traffic‐habits and local descent groups: Broadening the scope of ethnographic research into land rights after land claims.

Anthropologists have been assisting in the identification of 'traditional owners' in Northern Territory land claims for 50 years. This is becoming a lesser part of their workload as most outstanding claims have now been resolved. A key element of traditional ownership as statutorily defined is the '...

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Publicado en:Australian Journal of Anthropology Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 40 - 55
Autor principal: O'Meara, Dayne
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Apr2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Traffic‐habits and local descent groups: Broadening the scope of ethnographic research into land rights after land claims.
      aug:
        au: O'Meara, Dayne
        affil: Anthropology Branch, Northern Land Council, Darwin City Northern Territory, , Australia
      su:
        Northern Territory
        Anderson, Jonathan, 1984-
        Anthropology
        Indigenous rights
        Indigenous peoples
        Property rights
        Social dynamics
        Ethnology research
        Social groups
        Land tenure
      sug:
        subj:
          Anthropology
          Indigenous rights
          Indigenous peoples
          Property rights
          Social dynamics
          Ethnology research
          Social groups
          Land tenure
          Northern Territory
          Lessors of Other Real Estate Property
          Anderson, Jonathan, 1984-
      keyword:
        applied anthropology
        Australian Aboriginal Land Rights
        bureaucratic institutions
        ethnographic methods
        local descent groups
        applied anthropology
        Australian Aboriginal Land Rights
        bureaucratic institutions
        ethnographic methods
        local descent groups
      ab: Anthropologists have been assisting in the identification of 'traditional owners' in Northern Territory land claims for 50 years. This is becoming a lesser part of their workload as most outstanding claims have now been resolved. A key element of traditional ownership as statutorily defined is the 'local descent group'. This phrase arose in anthropological analyses of Aboriginal society, but was introduced as a criterion of traditional ownership into the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. This paper considers the importance for applied anthropology of recognising the differences as well as links between statutorily recognised local descent groups and Indigenous understandings of relationships to land, especially as we move further in time from the land claims in which particular groups were originally described. Throughout history, abstract categories for people (such as 'local descent group') have been used in ways that direct the physical flow of populations through institutions, leading to what Anderson (1991, p. 169) has termed 'traffic‐habits' that 'gave real social life to the state's earlier fantasies'. Based on my direct experience as a land council anthropologist, I argue that the contemporary form of many of the local descent groups with which the land councils consult is at least partially the result of 'traffic‐habits' that reify the 'demographic topographies' that exist in claim documents and meeting reports. In this context, ethnographic analysis of the political and institutional aspects of Aboriginal lives is required for applied anthropologists to deliver sound advice as to how local descent groups operate.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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