People and Change in Australia arose from a conviction that more needs to be done in anthropology to give a fuller sense of the changing lives and circumstances of Australian indigenous communities and people. Much anthropological and public discussion remains embedded in traditionalizing views of indigenous people, and in accounts that seem to underline essential and apparently timeless difference. In this volume the editors and contributors assume that "the person" is socially defined and reconfigured as contexts change, both immediate and historical. Essays in this collection are grounded in Australian locales commonly termed "remote." These indigenous communities were largely established as residential concentrations by Australian governments, some first as missions, most in areas that many of the indigenous people involved consider their homelands. A number of these settlements were located in proximity to settler industries including pastoralism, market-gardening, and mining. These are the locales that many non-indigenous Australians think of as the homes of the most traditional indigenous communities and people. The contributors discuss the changing circumstances of indigenous people who originate from such places. Some remain, while others travel far afield. The accounts reveal a diversity of experiences and histories that involve major dynamics of disembedding from country and home locales, and re-embedding in new contexts, and reconfigurations of relatedness. The essays explore dimensions of change and continuity in childhood experience and socialization in a desert community; the influence of Christianity in fostering both individuation and relatedness in northeast Arnhem Land; the diaspora of Central Australian Warlpiri people to cities and the forms of life and livelihood they make there; adolescent experiences of schooling away from home communities; youth in kin-based heavy metal gangs configuring new identities, and indigenous people of southeast Australia reflecting on whether an "Aboriginal way" can be sustained. The volume takes a step toward understanding the relation between changing circumstances and changing lives of indigenous Australians today and provides a sense of the quality and the feel of those lives.

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion paints a picture of conversion far more complex than its customary image in anthropology and religious studies. Conversion is very seldom simply a sudden moment of insight or inspiration; it is a change both of individual consciousness and of social belonging, of mental attitude and of physical experience, whose unfolding depends both on its cultural setting and on the distinct individuals who undergo it. The book explores religious conversion in a variety of cultural settings and considers how anthropological approaches can help us understand the phenomenon. Fourteen case studies span historical and geographical contexts, including the contemporary United States, modern and medieval Europe, and non-western societies in South Asia, Melanesia, and South America. They discuss conversion to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Spiritualism. Combining ethnographic description with theoretical analysis, authors consider the nature and meaning of conversion, its social and political dimensions, and its relationship to individual religious experience.

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion paints a picture of conversion far more complex than its customary image in anthropology and religious studies. Conversion is very seldom simply a sudden moment of insight or inspiration; it is a change both of individual consciousness and of social belonging, of mental attitude and of physical experience, whose unfolding depends both on its cultural setting and on the distinct individuals who undergo it. The book explores religious conversion in a variety of cultural settings and considers how anthropological approaches can help us understand the phenomenon. Fourteen case studies span historical and geographical contexts, including the contemporary United States, modern and medieval Europe, and non-western societies in South Asia, Melanesia, and South America. They discuss conversion to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Spiritualism. Combining ethnographic description with theoretical analysis, authors consider the nature and meaning of conversion, its social and political dimensions, and its relationship to individual religious experience.

This book, first published in 1984, recounts the daily life, the politics, religion and leisure pursuits of Jamaicans in working- and middle-class Kingston. The study is based upon the author's observations of life in Selton Town and Vermount, two neighborhoods of Kingston, between 1971 and 1982. The author analyses the local social conflicts and ideologies, thereby, demonstrating how larger issues of class domination and cultural hegemony pervade neighbourhood life. The study provides a detailed contextual account of the significance of belonging to different classes. It provides a different perspective of Caribbean anthropology combining the techniques of ethnography and political economy.

This book, first published in 1984, recounts the daily life, the politics, religion and leisure pursuits of Jamaicans in working- and middle-class Kingston. The study is based upon the author's observations of life in Selton Town and Vermount, two neighborhoods of Kingston, between 1971 and 1982. The author analyses the local social conflicts and ideologies, thereby, demonstrating how larger issues of class domination and cultural hegemony pervade neighbourhood life. The study provides a detailed contextual account of the significance of belonging to different classes. It provides a different perspective of Caribbean anthropology combining the techniques of ethnography and political economy.

This timely collection of articles explores some of the most pressing issues confronting both Australia's Indigenous peoples and Australia as a nation. In the current period of economic strength, Indigenous peoples have found themselves increasingly struggling to develop economic opportunities and to ensure the viability of their social and cultural lives. This volume brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors from a range of disciplines and experiences. Focusing primarily on remote Australia, they bring together a whole range of issues and concerns that need to be addressed. The articles are from the proceedings of a workshop of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia held at the University of Sydney, 30 November to 1 December 2004.