W. E. H. Stanner was an anthropologist of Aboriginal Australia, and this Australian National University Press collection gathers his essays from 1938 to 1973, including The Dreaming, the 1953 paper that introduced the word into general English use, arguing it names an ancestral era, a present reality and a body of law all at once rather than simply a mythic past. Its strength is that Stanner's own essay remains the standard citable source for the term's origin and its intended meaning within Aboriginal thought, by a specialist who conducted direct fieldwork. Its limit is that Stanner wrote as an outside anthropologist interpreting the concept for an English speaking readership, so a claim needing an Aboriginal community's own contemporary account of the Dreaming needs a source speaking from within that tradition.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Published by Australian National University Press, W. E. H. Stanner's own essay collection by a specialist who conducted direct fieldwork, the standard citable source for the concept's origin and meaning, treated at the top tier. NotesCollects Stanner's essays including "The Dreaming" (1953), the paper that put the word into general English use and argued that it names an ancestral era, a present reality and a body of law at once rather than a mythic past. Standard citable survey for the concept.
Citation
AuthorW. E. H. Stanner
PublisherAustralian National University Press, Canberra
Publication Year1979
Source Typeacademic monograph
Claims Backed By This Source (23 claims)
This source backs 23 claims across the atlas. As facts: 16 well-attested. Plus 7 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Articles, 9 claims: 7 well-attested, 2 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Religions, 5 claims: 2 well-attested, 3 general references.
- Cultures, 1 claims: 1 general references.
- Myths & Sacred Narratives, 1 claims: 1 general references.
General References
7Myths & Sacred Narratives
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