Dynamics of Difference in Australia

Francesca Merlan is Professor of Anthropology at Australian National University. She is author of numerous books, including Caging the Rainbow: Places, Politics, and Aborigines in a North Australian Town.

Preface: Region, Position, and Ethics of Representation Introduction: Persistent Difference Chapter 1. Nobodies and Relatives: Nonrecognition and Identification in Social Process Chapter 2. Imitation as Relationality in Early Australian Encounters Chapter 3. Mediations Chapter 4. Treachery and Boundary Demarcation Chapter 5. Cruelty and a Different Recognition Chapter 6. Race, Recognition, State, and Society Chapter 7. The Postcolony: Sacred Sites and Saddles Chapter 8. Recognition: A Space of Difference? Notes References Index Acknowledgments

"This is an exceptionally rich book . . . [c]overing so many themes with exciting new insights, framings and ideas, it will be essential reading for historians working in Aboriginal and settler colonial history and a major contribution to our understanding of Australia's history of Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations." (Australian Historical Studies) "This book reveals with analytical clarity the underside of Australian politics in relation to indigenous peoples-the denials, self-delusions, sleights of hand, and inevitable misdeeds of the empowered majority. Francesca Merlan achieves this not so much through the flagging language of postcolonial critique but rather through the demonstration of consistencies across different times and places and on local and national levels. The cumulative evidence is compelling." (Diane Austin-Broos, University of Sydney) "Dynamics of Difference in Australia is a remarkable and insightful book. Its engaging central theme, the possibility of mutual recognition between indigenous and nonindigenous Australians, is not only topical but also addresses concerns of long standing." (Victoria Burbank, University of Western Australia)