The practices and performances of everyday life in small communities refers to the everyday interactions and experiences that are shaped by a culture’s values and social relations. This way of living can often reflect larger social issues, while influencing the everyday experiences of life within the community. Small tight-knit communities in Northern and Central Australia, explore such practices in terms of social structures and their values underpinning everyday life – Mobility, Immediacy, and Intimacy. An ethnographic focus on the practices and performances of everyday life in small communities helps anthropologists to adequately understand larger social issues such as social debates concerning the construction of Aboriginal Identity through
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In Yuendumu Everyday and Performing Place, Practising Memory, churches have been introduced into a community that believes in the dreamtime (Beckett, 1994), sorcery and witchcraft and are evident within Yuendumu Everyday within the map of the town (Musharbash, 2008, p.24), and is more referred to in Practising Place, Performing Memories in regards to the Mona Mona missionaries and their lasting impact on the indigenous community. This ethnography, Practising Place, Performing Memory, continues by stating that once the missionary had been closed, the Seventh Adventist Church had appointed welfare officers for both spiritual guidance and practical assistance in finding suitable accommodation and employment opportunities. According to Sutton (2010) and Schwarz (2010), although Christianity and other westernised religious beliefs may have an influence at a deeper level, the traditional aboriginal beliefs, regarding witchcraft, the dreamtime and sorcery, are not susceptible by Christianity, however the institutions are more widely accepted in today’s society than in the past (Schwarz, 2010). This illustrates that the indigenous are attempting to be a part of western society by accepting alternative …show more content…
This is clearly evident within Yuendumu Everyday and the metaphoric meaning of the ‘western-style house’, of which represents the Warlpiri people’s desire to be accepted by the larger Australian society, while also representing their yearn to be considered normal and equal. In saying this, the Warlpiri people do not wish to have a western style life, but to retain their culture through practices of building-dwelling-thinking and to accommodate this within the house for Warlpiri people. Moreover, the ‘western-style house’ introduces western ideas into the Aboriginal community and the values that the house accommodates including privacy, future orientation and stability, of which, contradicts the Yuendumu lifestyle. This is because the Warlpiri people’s lives is communal in nature, therefore, the value of privacy accommodated by the western style house contradicts the Warlpiri people’s value of a communal lifestyle where resources are shared. This is evident within Yuendumu everyday through Tasmin’s dream to own a large house with gaming consoles and televisions in each room with no one to share the house with. This is because Tasmin spends most time stopping with different people on different nights and rarely has time to be alone. This feeling of being unable to have time to oneself
In Yuendumu Everyday and Performing Place, Practising Memory, churches have been introduced into a community that believes in the dreamtime (Beckett, 1994), sorcery and witchcraft and are evident within Yuendumu Everyday within the map of the town (Musharbash, 2008, p.24), and is more referred to in Practising Place, Performing Memories in regards to the Mona Mona missionaries and their lasting impact on the indigenous community. This ethnography, Practising Place, Performing Memory, continues by stating that once the missionary had been closed, the Seventh Adventist Church had appointed welfare officers for both spiritual guidance and practical assistance in finding suitable accommodation and employment opportunities. According to Sutton (2010) and Schwarz (2010), although Christianity and other westernised religious beliefs may have an influence at a deeper level, the traditional aboriginal beliefs, regarding witchcraft, the dreamtime and sorcery, are not susceptible by Christianity, however the institutions are more widely accepted in today’s society than in the past (Schwarz, 2010). This illustrates that the indigenous are attempting to be a part of western society by accepting alternative …show more content…
This is clearly evident within Yuendumu Everyday and the metaphoric meaning of the ‘western-style house’, of which represents the Warlpiri people’s desire to be accepted by the larger Australian society, while also representing their yearn to be considered normal and equal. In saying this, the Warlpiri people do not wish to have a western style life, but to retain their culture through practices of building-dwelling-thinking and to accommodate this within the house for Warlpiri people. Moreover, the ‘western-style house’ introduces western ideas into the Aboriginal community and the values that the house accommodates including privacy, future orientation and stability, of which, contradicts the Yuendumu lifestyle. This is because the Warlpiri people’s lives is communal in nature, therefore, the value of privacy accommodated by the western style house contradicts the Warlpiri people’s value of a communal lifestyle where resources are shared. This is evident within Yuendumu everyday through Tasmin’s dream to own a large house with gaming consoles and televisions in each room with no one to share the house with. This is because Tasmin spends most time stopping with different people on different nights and rarely has time to be alone. This feeling of being unable to have time to oneself