iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

I was rummaging around online again today at work (I swear I do sometimes work), looking up the word 'djungguwan', which I find a very lyrical word, in keeping with its mysterious significance. And I came across this correspondence from 1997:
http://www.dreamtime-didjeriduw3server. ... hread.html

Peter Danaja was politely and properly suggesting that websites should not be posting information about 'inside' knowledge for public consumption, specifically regarding the djungguwan ceremony, and also even mention of the word/name Yolunggur. Which I am only mentioning now because I learned it, I think with proper authorization, from the Ramingining film Ten Canoes.

It also occurred to me that altho I am sure there are elements of the djungguwan that are secret and private, there are some elements at least that have been filmed numerous times. There is a short bit on it in Gulpilil: One Red Blood, and also this DVD, filming three djugguwan ceremonies from three different decades, purports to have been made at the request of clan elders, as a means of preserving information for future generations of Yolngu. But of course, anyone can buy the DVD...
http://filmaustraliaceremony.com.au/s2.htm

I don't know if this post is about wondering if things are changing for the communities of Arnhem land in regard to their ability to keep their 'inside' knowledge 'inside', or maybe about the difficulty for anyone to keep anything secret in the digital age.

Pondering...
Cindy

Another question to be brought up is about the unity (or rather the lack of unity) of the Aboriginal people.
The "Elders" are the reference to turn to for knowing whether one thing should be done/told or not.
But there may be several elders in one single clan... each one with his own view on a particular subject.
So when you're talking about something that has to do with a tribe (several clans) or a region (inter-tribal), there is no "one person" to turn to to ask questions but tens, hundreds ?
Plus the fact that elders usually are not internet-connected (and many are illiterate too), this means information cannot run first-hand on the internet.

What I can say is that inside vs outside knowledge still applies and whatever we consume in terms of media in the public domain is outside knowledge that has already been vetted by elders. There has been leakage n blurring of the inside n outside occasionally, anthropologists of old for example didn't have ethics committees to deal with at universities and pretty much did what they wanted.

G

yes... even fooling Aboriginal, telling them they are a witch in order to obtain precious informations...

Oh really, that's funny Francis, imagine "I'm Dr. so-and-so and I'm from the university of such-and-such and I'm a witch, just call me Witch Doctor" hahahaha

G

Hey Cindy, things are always changing, no such thing as stasis except as a human conceptual construct. Knowledge too also changes over time, communities change, people change. The role of secrecy in Yolngu society is still relevant too I reckon, some knowledge is inherently dangerous and can only be "handled" by certain individuals, secrecy also serves to preserve the authority structures in traditional society and whilst some of these structures have altered considerably over the past 50 years, the ceremonial domain is still as strong and robust as ever. I wouldn't worry about keeping secrets in the digital age, what information is out there in the public domain represents maybe 0.001% of total Yolngu knowledge

G

You know, this actually seems rather plausible to me... it's JUST LIKE in Ten Canoes (and we know that film is currently my Bible, and I consult it for any question I have about anything - what would Ten Canoes say? heh heh heh...) where 'the stranger' appears, and it doesn't take much for our heroes to be convinced that he's a dangerous sorcerer.

But the truth is that people ARE quick to see sorcery or witchery or voodoo when they are confronted with a culture they don't understand (or even individual behavior they don't understand). What if an anthropologist brought items that were not familiar to the clan elders, which is actually pretty likely in the heyday of cultural anthropology (early 20th C)?

Anthropologists themselves are so quick to see sorcery and such themselves that it's a joke of the profession that anytime an unfamiliar artifact from a little-known group of people is found, they can't figure out what it is so they just say 'this must have had ritualistic shamanistic meaning for these people' when in fact it might be a backscratcher or something for opening clams or who knows what!

There's a famous anthropological tract from the '50s about a mysterious tribe called the Nacirema, and all their peculiar rituals, which involve baking their heads in small ovens and moving bundles of horsehair in a ritualistic series of motions within their mouths, and these strange people are convinced that if they don't perform this ritual on a tightly prescribed schedule, they will lose their social standing and be shunned by their friends. The joke is that Nacirema is 'American' spelled backwards, and the 'rituals' described are those of 1950s Americans (small oven = hair dryer, bundle of horsehair = toothbrush). It's a little lesson in how cultures look when we see them as 'other'.

So anyhow, I am being long-winded as usual, but what I'm trying to say is it's not that hard to see sorcery, witchcraft, religious content, any number of otherworldly things, when we are confronted by a culture that is unfamiliar and opaque to us. So maybe anthropologists DID convince Yolngu that they were witches!

The question does remain, would the clan elders really want to share their most precious secrets with some foreign witch... not so sure about that.

Okay, lunch is over... I better get back to work!! Or this might get even longer.

Well that "witch doctor" story is a true story from what I read in one from Barbara Glowzcewski's books.
The French anthropologist was referring to another female anthropologist (decades earlier though) who used this false identity to obtain secret informations by threatening the Aborigines of sorcery... information that she got in the end... and published.
I don't recall the name of that previous anthropologist even if one name rings a bell... not sure, so won't mention it.
Gotta find these lines back, but this would mean to re-read her many books, pfew... in a while

Wow! How sleazy can you get, eh? That anthropologist was plainly not thinking of herself as a guest in someone else's home!! Terrible.

I eagerly await your report after reading all those books, heh heh... too bad paper books weren't searchable like digital ones. We are so spoiled!

Ya, true, things do change, and sometimes in very unpredictable ways. Well, most of the time... but I am glad to have it affirmed that knowledge that has been entrusted to outsiders like me is well-vetted. And I have no doubt that it's the wee tiny tip of the iceburg...

I was reading old posts on this forum today (while I was supposed to be working) and was quite fascinated by the story of Michael Dawu curing a woman of terrible abdominal pain by sucking a stick and a friable hair out of her abdomen!! And then losing his abilities later on. I swear that the older I get, the more things there are that fall in the category of 'I don't know what to make of them'. Are these abilities that one loses or gains abruptly? And can a reason for the acquisition of loss of the abilities be known?

Pretty amazing.

Cindy

Marrnggitj.... Its the word for healer or "clever man" in eastern Arnhem Land, a good sort as opposed to galka' (one who practises the evil arts).

But marrnggitj can also refer to the spirit entities that literally sit on the shoulders of a person, imbuing him (usually a him but sometimes a her) with special powers. No-one else can see these spirit entities except for the chosen person. When a person loses his powers, its because the spirit entities have left him... diving into saltwater makes sense, but drinking hot tea doesn't - at least to me.

Marrnggitj vs Galka'.... you can't decide to be a marrnggitj, often its the case that something unusual happens out bush, a strange event that "turns the country around" or such like happening etc. etc.

In contrast, one can learn to be a galka', anyone can learn it if you have the right contacts.

G

Something fun hehehe



G