A. W. Howitt's classic two-volume study, first published in 1904, investigates the organisation, practices and customs of the indigenous peoples he encountered during his forty years exploring Australia. He describes how he made 'close and friendly contact' with tribes who were, in his words, in a condition of 'complete savagery'. Howitt achieved considerable status among the Aborigines, and was even permitted to witness some of their sacred ceremonies. Focusing particularly on the social organisation of the tribes, their kinship systems and marriage rules, his book is a captivating account of a now-vanished civilisation.

"This work is a serious anthropological study of Australian Aboriginal religion. It is designed to be read by adults, and is primarily for use in universities and/or similar institutions. It is not, therefore, for use in schools. Where Australian Agorigines are concerned, and in areas where traditional Aboriginal religion is still significant, this book should be used only after consultation with local male religious leaders. This restriction is important. It is imposed because the concept of what is secret, or may not be revealed to the uninitiated in Aboriginal religious belief and action, varies considerably throughout the Australian continent; And because the varying views of Aborigines in this respect must on all occasions be observed. January 30th 1973 Ronald M. Berndt" --

Indigenous Australians have long understood sustainable hunting and harvesting, seasonal changes in flora and fauna, predator–prey relationships and imbalances, and seasonal fire management. Yet the extent of their knowledge and expertise has been largely unknown and underappreciated by non-Aboriginal colonists, especially in the south-east of Australia where Aboriginal culture was severely fractured. Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia is the first book to examine historical records from early colonists who interacted with south-eastern Australian Aboriginal communities and documented their understanding of the environment, natural resources such as water and plant and animal foods, medicine and other aspects of their material world. This book provides a compelling case for the importance of understanding Indigenous knowledge, to inform discussions around climate change, biodiversity, resource management, health and education. It will be a valuable reference for natural resource management agencies, academics in Indigenous studies and anyone interested in Aboriginal culture and knowledge.

Sounding 6 begins with Bain Attwood’s thesis Blacks & Lohans and an echo titled SEX & SORROW EAST OF MELBOURNE. Then Henry Meyrick’s frontier life and death in Western Port and Gipps Land leads into Echo 93: TAMING MELBOURNE BAYSIDE & THE DANDENONGS. Turning to OPENING GIPPSLAND: elite squatters at Sale are contrasted by surviving Kooris on Jackson’s Track. The narrative then backtracks in time with Echo 95: CONTRIBUTIONS TO TRUTH ABOUT SLAUGHTER IN GIPPSLAND comprising the Porter, Cox, Fels and Gardner versions of the blood-stained land-grab. Fels then reports on the Native Police actions and Morgan’s recent overview of the Ganai before and after white settlement concludes the shameful issues long denied or excused. Echo 96: LIAR’S LUNCH charts the rise and fall of pioneer Angus McMillan MP before the focus shifts to the historical geography of East Gippsland clans and languages and on to missionary Bulmer at Lake Tyers with the stories of the payback of Hopping Kitty and Attwood’s study of Brataualung man Tarra Bobby. Alfred Howitt’s birthing of Oz anthropology with his opus The Native Tribes of South-east Australia published at the start of the 20th century is the source material of several echoes on the making of ‘clever’ men and on songs and song-makers. Sounding 6 closes with extracts reprinted from Professor Elkin’s Aboriginal Men of High Degree – their personality and ‘making’, the powers of medicine men, and in conclusion Echo 106: ABORIGINAL MEN OF HIGH DEGREE IN A CHANGING WORLD.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

All study of the origins of social institutions must be based on what ethnology can tell us of the psychology of the lower races and on the primitive conceptions of human relations which are thus established. It is only in early modes of thought that we can find the explanation of ceremonies and systems which originated in primitive society; and, if ceremony and system are the concrete forms in which human relations are expressed, an examination, ethnological and psychological, of human relations, is indispensable for enquiry into human institutions.

In 'The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead' by James George Frazer, the renowned anthropologist explores the universal belief in an afterlife and the rituals associated with honoring deceased ancestors. Written in a scholarly and comprehensive style, Frazer delves into various cultures, traditions, and historical practices to examine the continuity and evolution of beliefs surrounding death. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic data, this book provides a profound insight into the human psyche and the ways in which different societies navigate the concept of mortality. Frazer's meticulous research and comparative analysis offer valuable perspectives on the significance of ancestor worship in shaping cultural identities and religious practices. Through his interdisciplinary approach, Frazer sheds light on the complexities of human spirituality and the enduring relevance of ancestral veneration in contemporary societies. Readers interested in anthropology, religious studies, and the history of belief systems will find this book enlightening and thought-provoking.

"As a plain record of a curious form of society which must soon be numbered with the past, the book may continue to possess an interest even when, with the progress of its knowledge, its errors shall have been corrected and its theories perhaps superseded by others which make a nearer approach to truth." Despite having been criticised later, the book at hand is an important and interesting document of its time. It provided the first complete ethnographical summary of totemism and exogamy, dwelling on its religious and social aspects. Totemism is described as a religious and social system in which people or clans regard themselves as related to certain objects. Exogamy, which is often found in conjunction with totemism, is represented as a system which only allows marriage outside of a specific group. On the whole, Frazer's work includes the origins as well as an ethnographical survey of totemism and exogamy in Australian Aboriginal tribes. Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist who contributed mainly to the studies of mythology and comparative religion and was the first to detail the relations between myths and rituals. His work Totemism and Exogamy is also frequently cited by Sigmund Freud in his own study Totem and Taboo.

Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941) is famous as the author of The Golden Bough, but his work ranged widely across classics, cultural history, folklore and literary criticism as well as anthropology. A Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for 62 years, Sir James G. Frazer devoted his life to research. This volume was first published in 1930.