Aborigines of Victoria: Volume 1
With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania Compiled from Various Sources for the Government of Victoria

Source material describing the life and customs of indigenous Australians, compiled and published in 1878.

Robert Brough Smyth (Author)

9781108006569, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 December 2010

576 pages
24.4 x 17 x 3 cm, 0.91 kg

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.

Preface
Introduction
1. Physical characteristics
2. Mental character
3. Number and distribution of the aborigines
4. Birth and education of children
5. Marriage
6. Death, and burial of the dead
7. A native encampment
8. Food
9. Diseases
10. Dress and personal ornaments
11. Ornamentation
12. Offensive weapons
13. Defensive weapons
14. Weapons and implements of the West Australians
15. Implements and manufactures
16. Stone implements
17. Nets and fish-hooks
18. Methods of producing fire
19. Canoes
20. Myths.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM]