The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and epistemological expressions. How does a speaker know that what they say is correct? Some languages have obligatory marking for stating 'information source' ('seen', 'inferred', or 'reported'). In others a source is optional - 'the (reported) theft'. This cross-linguistic investigation will advance our understanding of human interaction and the expression of knowledge.
God, Blood, Country: An Ethnographic Study of Christian Institutions and Political Processes in Fiji. This Discovery project addresses the Australian government's commitments to law and justice in the Pacific by seeking to understand Christian institutions' roles in national political processes, focusing specifically on Fiji. Understanding the ways that citizens of the region see links between religious and political authority is a vital first step toward understanding present conflicts and pot ....God, Blood, Country: An Ethnographic Study of Christian Institutions and Political Processes in Fiji. This Discovery project addresses the Australian government's commitments to law and justice in the Pacific by seeking to understand Christian institutions' roles in national political processes, focusing specifically on Fiji. Understanding the ways that citizens of the region see links between religious and political authority is a vital first step toward understanding present conflicts and potential means of securing peace.Read moreRead less
Chanted tales from Highland New Guinea: a comparative study of oral performance traditions and their role in contemporary land politics. In parts of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of epic-like chanted tales. Often dealing with relationships between people and land, these are a highly valued cultural resource. From the perspective of comparative poetics they are one of the clearest known examples of measured verse that has developed independently of alphabetic or syllabic writing. ....Chanted tales from Highland New Guinea: a comparative study of oral performance traditions and their role in contemporary land politics. In parts of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of epic-like chanted tales. Often dealing with relationships between people and land, these are a highly valued cultural resource. From the perspective of comparative poetics they are one of the clearest known examples of measured verse that has developed independently of alphabetic or syllabic writing. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of investigators to analyse the wide range of styles in which these narratives are performed, and further the understanding of their implications for cross-cultural study of verbal art and the politics of land ownership in present-day Papua New Guinea.Read moreRead less
Stories around a sand space: multimodal interaction in Central Australian Aboriginal sand drawing narratives. Central Australian Aboriginal sand stories are a unique form of storytelling that incorporates speech, song, gesture, signs and drawn graphic symbols. This project will enhance our understandings of these narrative traditions and provide insights into the complexities of multimodal communicative systems as they are used in day-to-day interactions.
Skin and kin in Aboriginal Australia: linguistic and historical perspectives on the dynamics of social categories. Indigenous Australians have unique ways of talking about social relations, linking them over wide regions as family. This project will trace the history of these terminologies and the evolution of these relations. The results will reveal the dynamics of Indigenous societies and resolve long-standing questions about human society generally.
Values and ethics in a global world: a semantic perspective. The question: "How are we to live?" is of fundamental importance, on an individual, social and international level. Yet in an increasingly global and pluralist world it remains difficult to articulate any values that are intelligible, let alone acceptable, to everyone. Although the literature on the subject is constantly growing, the very language of the current debate suffers from ethnocentrism, with culture-specific English words lik ....Values and ethics in a global world: a semantic perspective. The question: "How are we to live?" is of fundamental importance, on an individual, social and international level. Yet in an increasingly global and pluralist world it remains difficult to articulate any values that are intelligible, let alone acceptable, to everyone. Although the literature on the subject is constantly growing, the very language of the current debate suffers from ethnocentrism, with culture-specific English words like "fairness", "autonomy" and "tolerance" being widely used as would-be neutral conceptual tools. A framework for discussing ethics and values in a universal, non-ethnocentric perspective is urgently needed. This project aims at providing such a framework and putting it to work.Read moreRead less
The Semantics of Canonical Parallelism: Oral composition among Rotinese poets, eastern Indonesia. The pairing of words, known in linguistics as parallelism, is a critical feature of the oral traditions of the world. This strict use of couplets for oral compositions is a characteristic of the vibrant traditions of verbal communication on all the islands of eastern Indonesia. This project focuses on the oral traditions of the island of Roti, Australia's closest Indonesian neighbour. Using new anal ....The Semantics of Canonical Parallelism: Oral composition among Rotinese poets, eastern Indonesia. The pairing of words, known in linguistics as parallelism, is a critical feature of the oral traditions of the world. This strict use of couplets for oral compositions is a characteristic of the vibrant traditions of verbal communication on all the islands of eastern Indonesia. This project focuses on the oral traditions of the island of Roti, Australia's closest Indonesian neighbour. Using new analytic techniques applied to an extensive recorded corpus, it seeks to identify underlying mechanisms of verbal composition that may be applied comparatively to other oral traditions throughout the world, thus locating Australia at the forefront of the international study of oral traditions.Read moreRead less
Cape Keerweer 1606-2006: an ethnographic history of the Wik region, Queensland. In this research with Wik Aboriginal people I investigate how key facets of the peoples' lives have changed since the first Dutch visit 400 years ago. I seek a credible empirical explanation for their descent into crisis, especially post-1978, something with wider implications for the national interest. I examine historical causes through shifts in demography, land tenure, occupations, power relations, violence, lang ....Cape Keerweer 1606-2006: an ethnographic history of the Wik region, Queensland. In this research with Wik Aboriginal people I investigate how key facets of the peoples' lives have changed since the first Dutch visit 400 years ago. I seek a credible empirical explanation for their descent into crisis, especially post-1978, something with wider implications for the national interest. I examine historical causes through shifts in demography, land tenure, occupations, power relations, violence, language use, and art production. From the intensely local, the past individuals and cultural landscapes of Cape Keerweer, I move outward in space and onward in time tracing gradual Wik engagement in regional, state, national and global relationships 1606-2006.Read moreRead less
Children's language learning and the development of intersubjectivity. How do children learn languages? How do they learn to understand the intentions and perspectives of others, and coordinate their own with them? Based on research in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, this project will answer these questions, showing how the two processes are related to each other by studying them in a cross-cultural way.
Aboriginal song cycles from the Simpson Desert and the Cooper: an integrated linguistic and musicological study. The project will produce a detailed linguistic analysis of four previously undocumented Wangkangurru song cycles from the Simpson Desert, recorded by the applicant in the nineteen sixties, including a study of the singer's comments on esoteric meanings. It also involves similar work with the Nguninta ?travelling ceremony? from the upper Cooper. Integrated with this will be an ethno-m ....Aboriginal song cycles from the Simpson Desert and the Cooper: an integrated linguistic and musicological study. The project will produce a detailed linguistic analysis of four previously undocumented Wangkangurru song cycles from the Simpson Desert, recorded by the applicant in the nineteen sixties, including a study of the singer's comments on esoteric meanings. It also involves similar work with the Nguninta ?travelling ceremony? from the upper Cooper. Integrated with this will be an ethno-musicological study aimed particularly at showing the distribution of song-styles and the way songs were transmitted.Read moreRead less