Draft <

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN ABORIGINAL LAND RECOVERY <


Introduction


by Charles D. Brown -<


1982 <

Annotated in 2026 <


This paper argues for return to primary (primitive) culture. Both Australian and American Aboriginals have focused on land recovery as a way of liberating and reviving their cultures. Thus, 1 develop the argument for use in Aboriginal Land Recovery <



ETHNOLOGY has discovered that "primitive" or primary cultures put people before things ; that is, they give more importance to ordering relations betreen people than to ordering things as compared with western cirilization. Prinary cultures are stateless societies as weil. They HErE HEATErCh (OUrsIde Of the faily)with attending ofpressive apareras for controlling sublects and objects in territorial boundaries. 3t implicatior, Primar cultures ate not inperialistic on the Capitalist, norar or cther model. Furthermore, despite the evident roverty in presentias primary cultures, life in those cultures 19 asfluent. That is, the noverty is evidence of imperial exploitation and in bourgeois thought and propaganda but aot of primary cultural seructure, tle or potential; : and primary culture does not treat land and esources as cormodities and private property. Finally, anthropology has discored thut and this is nerhaps m most unusual claim, primam cultures are nore fit for survival strater, in the Darinian or evolutionam sense, than civiliation, at least based on te best evidence so far, From all of the above, I conclude that primary culture is S/iritualir and raterially superior to civilization. What is