Aborigines of Victoria: With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania Compiled from Various Sources for ... (Cambridge Library Collection - Linguistics) - Softcover

Smyth, Robert Brough

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108006566 ISBN 13: 9781108006569

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Robert Brough Smyth (1830–1889) was a successful Melbourne-based mining engineer and civil servant whose international contacts included the geologist Adam Sedgwick. He also spent 16 years as Secretary of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines. In this study of the society and customs of indigenous Australians in the Victoria region, first published in 1878, he combines his own observations with those of others who lived or worked closely with the Aboriginal population. Volume 1 discusses the Aborigines' physical and mental characteristics, demographics, social interaction, rituals, daily life and mythology. Comparisons are made throughout with other indigenous populations, particularly those of nearby Pacific and Indonesian islands. Illustrated throughout, the book takes into account the changes forced on the native population by the arrival of European settlers in the late eighteenth century and preserves much information that might otherwise have been lost.

About this title

Book Description

This 1878 study of the indigenous Australians in the Victoria region brings together the observations of those who lived or worked closely with the Aboriginal population in the mid- to late nineteenth century. Illustrated throughout, the volume preserves much information about Aboriginal society that might otherwise have been lost.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108006566
• ISBN 13: 9781108006569
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576