Two Representative Tribes of Queensland: With an Inquiry Concerning the Origin of the Australian Race (Cambridge Library Collection - Linguistics) - Softcover

Mathew, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 110800928X ISBN 13: 9781108009287

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

John Mathew was a Presbyterian minister who developed an interest in Aboriginal ethnography after migrating from Scotland to work on his uncle's farm in Queensland in 1864. From 1879 he published influential studies of Aboriginal culture. Although Mathew's speculative argument for the tri-hybrid origins of the Australian Aborigines has long been disproved, his discussion of Aboriginal language and social behaviour was pioneering in the field of anthropology and is still well-regarded today. Two Representative Tribes of Queensland (1910) is the result of the extensive time Mathew spent visiting the Kabi and Wakka people living in the Barambah Government Aboriginal Station. This direct experience is emphasised in the preface to the book: 'For Mr Mathew Australian origins ... have been a life study, and the knowledge bearing upon these questions, which most others have gleaned from the library shelves, he has acquired at first-hand in the native camping grounds.'

About this title

Book Description

Two Representative Tribes of Queensland (1910) is a pioneering study of the culture of the Kabi and Wakka Australian Aboriginal tribes by the amateur anthropologist John Mathew. The book's detailed discussion of Aboriginal customs, social behaviour and language was influential in its time and is still highly regarded today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 110800928X
• ISBN 13: 9781108009287
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 276