Wirangu and SA resources

Hermann Koeler’s Adelaide : observations on the language and culture of South Australia by the first German visitor / edited by Peter Mühlhäusler. Unley, S. Aust. : Australian Humanities Press, 2006. ISBN 0958596220

An introduction to Wirangu / Gladys Miller, Paul Monaghan and Peter Mühlhäusler. [Adelaide, S. Aust.] : Linguistics Discipline, School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, c2006. 25 p.

Wardugu wirn = hunting for wombat : a Wirangu storybook / [story by Gladys Miller with assistance from Wanda Miller ; technical linguistic help by Paul Monaghan and Peter Mühlhäusler]. [Adelaide, S. Aust] : Gladys Miller c2005. ISBN 0975791206 (Wirangu vocab and parallel English text)

Colour universals: Wierzbicka

There are no “Color Universals” But There Are Universals of Visual semantics: Anna Wierzbicka. Anthropological Linguistics 47/2. Link goes to abstract. Not available online to my knowledge.

Murriny Patha song project

MP song: There’s also a community-oriented version of the site here.

From the project web site:

Our project documents the language and music of public songs and dances composed and performed by Murrinh-patha-speaking people, most of whom now live in the community of Wadeye (Northern Territory). The three main song genres are thanpa, wurlthirri and malkarrin.

PROJECT AIMS
1. To document historical recordings and contemporary performance of the three Murrinh-patha song genres at Wadeye
.2. To consider the interrelationships (historical and contemporary) of these Murrinh-patha genres with other genres of public dance song at Wadeye and neighbouring areas.
3. To assess the musical and linguistic significance of these genres in the wider Australian and international context.
4. To develop appropriate models for conserving, documenting, discovering, accessing and using the recordings and other materials within the community and outside, as an exemplar for other cultural documentation projects.

Alderete: Exploring recursivity

Link goes to pdf of paper by John Alderete: Exploring recursivity, stringency, and gradience in the Pama-Nyungan stress continuum.

Representational complexity in syllable structure

By Jennifer Smith. Link goes to pdf. Submitted manuscript.

Homo sapiens populates the earth

Patrick Manning: Homo sapiens populates the earth: A provisional synthesis, privileging linguistic evidence.

Journal of World History. 17.2 (2006) 115-196 Link goes to full article.

Archaeology of Oceania

Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands. Book concentrates on the Pacific but there are some articles on Australian archaeology. Some linguists may raise their eyebrows at comments in the introduction. The first link is to the google print site; here’s a link to Amazon.

Keen: Constraints on the development of inequalities

The latest issue of Current Anthropology has the following article by Ian Keen:

Constraints on the Development of Enduring Inequalities in Late Holocene Australia: Ian Keen. volume 47 (2006), pages 7–38

Conditions in Late Holocene Australia, including variable and unpredictable environments, reliance on a wide array of food resources, relatively low population densities, some degree of mobility, and shared access to land and waters, contrast sharply with those posited as conditions for the emergence of complexity among hunter-gatherer societies such as those of the Northwest Coast of North America. Nevertheless, Aboriginal societies varied considerably in a number of ways, including resources of male power. In particular, the article contrasts features of “reproductive power” in the high- and very-high-polygyny societies of the north coast of Australia with those of other regions of the continent. High to very high polygyny developed in areas with relatively high population density and certain forms of kin classification and engendered considerable inequality among patri-groups, but various social and environmental conditions imposed constraints on the development of enduring hierarchy.

Gamilaraay et al

Jane Simpson has a great post on some recent happenings, including Gamilaraay revitalisation work and some happenings in NSW.