|
|
Article: Naming and personal names of Ngaatjatjarra-speaking people, Western Desert: some questions related to research.
- Article from:
- Australian Aboriginal Studies
- Article date:
- September 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Personal names seem not to be of major interest to Australian Aboriginal anthropology, and studies on this topic, already pointed out by Francoise Dussart in 1988, are relatively sparse.(1) And yet they are of major concern to the researcher, especially if his or her main topic is kinship and hence the tracing of genealogical trees.
In this paper I discuss in outline, based on my own experience in the Western Desert, the question of names and naming and the associated problems for the researcher. The aim is to present the different types of personal names used by Ngaatjatjarra-speaking people and to propose a table summarising their relationship within the sphere ...