"Rich, scholastically challenging,... another milestone" --Australian Journal of Anthropology 12 (2001)

"Provides a rich mixture of material to provoke vigorous seminar discussions both of traditional ethnographic issues, and the problems of encounter with modernity" --The Contemporary Pacific, Fall 2002

"This volume should provoke a rethinking not only of Australian-Melanesian regional relations but also of anthropology's general comparativist project. Mindful of contemporary social theory and of the tensions of socioeconomic transformation, the editors and contributors deploy thoughtful ethnographies of 'place' talk effectively to undermine any easy distinction between the global and the local." --Rena Lederman, Princeton University

"In their vast and complex ritual journeys through mythic-historical spaces and times, indigenous peoples of New Guinea and Australia are not merely tracing the pathways of past beings but also leaving traces from their own unique movements. Emplaced Myth is thus centrally concerned with contemporary manifestations of indigenous historical consciousness, agency, and the struggle to transform an increasingly alienated physical world into a meaningful place to live. It is a fascinating account of ancient yet resilient cultural practices." --Jonathan D. Hill, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

"An important contribution to understanding the relationship of the peoples of these contiguous regions to their land, and understanding that is critical in the face of contemporary developments in the region. It will be a valuable resource in demonstrating that it is imperative to go beyond the hoary and unuseful contrast of 'foraging' vs 'horticultural' relations to the environment." --Nancy M. Williams, University of Queensland

Australia and Papua New Guinea share a number of important social, cultural, and historical features, making a sustained comparison between the two especially productive. This volume is the first in-depth work to do just that: it situates the ethnography of the two areas within a comparative framework and examines the relationship between indigenous systems of knowledge and "place"--an issue of growing concern to anthropologists. The essays demonstrate the manner in which regimes of restricted knowledge serve to protect and augment cultural property and the proprietorship over sites and territory; how myths evolve to explain and culturally appropriate important events pertaining to contact between indigenous and Western societies; how graphic designs and other culturally important iconic and iconographic processes provide conduits of cross-cultural appropriation between indigenous and non-indigenous societies in today's multicultural nation states.

Contributors: Lissant Boltan, Andrew Lattas, Anthony Redmond, Alan Rumsey, Deborah Bird Rose, Eric Kline Silverman, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Roy Wagner, Jurg Wassmann, James F. Weiner.

Alan Rumsey is fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. James F. Weiner is visiting fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Read the table of contents and/or the introduction (PDF).