Do Rocks Listen? The Cultural Politics of Apprehending Australian Aboriginal LaborAuthor(s): Elizabeth A. PovinelliSource: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 97, No. 3 (Sep., 1995), pp. 505-518Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/683270Accessed: 26/06/2010 03:09Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Blackwell Publishing and American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist.http://www.jstor.orgIt isasif"the realityofthemodeofproductionentersthe sceneat the moment when someoneis discoveredwho invents thetheory of it" -JeanBaudrillard, The Mirror of Production ONE HOT, STICKYNovemberday in1989, a large part of theBelyuenAboriginalcommunitywasgatheredonthe coastof theCox Peninsula,acrossfrom theDarwin Har- bour,toparticipateinoneofthelastdaysoftheKenbi LandClaim.1 Fiveofus-myself,Marjorie Bilbil,Ruby Yarrowin,AgnesLippo,andAnnTimber-stoodback fromthehustleofmicrophonesandnotepadsandthe hassleof nonstopquestionsfrom government officials for as wellas against our side.The other four women ranged in age from 38 to 70 (I was27) and came from a variety of Dreaming(totemic)backgrounds.We stood listeningto BettyBillawagdescribingtotheland commissionerand his entouragehowanimportantDreamingsitenearby, Old Man Rock,listenedtoand smelledthesweatofAb- originalpeopleastheypassedbyhunting,gathering, camping, or justmuckingabout. She outlinedtheimpor- tanceofsuch human-Dreaming/environmentalinterac- tionsto the health and productivity of the countryside.At one pointMarjorie Bilbil turned to me and said, "He can't believe,eh, Beth?" And I answered,"No, I don't think so, nothim, notreally. He doesn'tthink sheis lying. He just can't believehimselfthat that Old Man Rock listens." This scenein a variety of forms and settingshas been repeatedover and over sinceI first met the peopleliving at Belyuenin1984. Whether on sacredsiteregistrations, ethnobotanicalsurveys, tourist excursions,or in my own classroom--whereI useasimilar storytoillustratethe conceptofcultural hegemony-questionsalwaysturn to a matterofbelief:doesthe judge,theethnographer,Be- lyuenpeople,orIbelievethatDreamingslisten,smell, talk, or, more generally, intentionallyact and react to the presenceofhumansnearby? And theyturn toissuesof valueand evaluation: whatpoliticalor economicweight shouldthesebeliefsbegiven,andinwhatsocialrealm shouldthey be assessed?Are Aboriginal peopleworking, in the commonsense meaning of that word, when they talk tolocal Dreamings or whentheysitand relax,talk, play cards, or sleepon a beach? And howshould this work be stackedupagainstthekindoflaborthatproducesthe Australian gross national product? That thesebehind-the-scenesconversationsinevita- blyreturn toquestionsofbeliefandvalueisstriking in contrasttothe singular absenceof suchquestionsin the juralscene.While theCommonwealth governmenthas made Aboriginal cultural traditions the productivemotor of indigenousland rights, it has splinteredthe referent of "the cultural"and sidesteppeda direct confrontation over howtoassesshuman-environmentalinteractionsand cross-culturalnotionsoflabor.2 Thelandcommissioner listenstoBetty Billawag in order toevaluatethecultural authenticity of her notionof human labor and the Dream- ing environment. In his effort to balance the beliefsof the Aboriginal communitywiththeneedsofthe larger non- Aboriginal community,hedoesnotcriticallyinterrogate theculturalbeliefsthatsubtendandorganizehisown evaluativeschema.Not surprising.Thosebeliefs"went underground" longago,asiftheywerethemselvesa Dreaming.3 In otherwords,thecultureof progress,pro- ductivity, and politicaleconomythat subtendshis evalu- ationsremains,inthepolicyworld,anunassailableto- tem.4 Again,not surprising;theculturalframeworks subtending political economy(not the disputable ways of assessingpolitical-economic systems) were longago transmuted into neutral, natural, and objectivefact. Belief may be part and parcelofsocietyand culture, but labor, ecology,and economicvalue refer to material conditions most accuratelyapproachedthroughascientificpara- digm. As Baudrillard (1975)noted, subaltern perspectives on labor, politicaleconomy,and the nature of human-en- vironmental interactionsare subordinate to the dominant ELIZABETHA. POVINELLIis AssociateProfessor,Departmentof Anthropology,Universityof Chicago,Chicago,IL60637. AmericanAnthropologist97(3):505-518.Copyright ?1995,AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation. ELIZABETHA.POVINELLI /UNIVERSITYOF CHICAGO DoRckslisten? TheCulturalPoliticsof Apprehending Australian Aboriginal Labor 506AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST*VOL. 97,No.3*SEPTEMBER1995 perspective not only becausethey are popularly imagined as preceding itinsocialevolutionarytimebutalsobe- cause they are represented as beliefsrather than a method forascertainingtruth.Aboriginaltraditionsarelegally productivenotbecausetheyare"true"but becausethey are beliefsand thus part of the multiculturalism to which thecontemporarynation-statecan demonstratea liberal reconcilement.Butreconciliationwithmulticulturalism endswhereaconceptualaccommodationtoamulti- economismwouldbegin. Putinamoreobviousway,whattheCommon- wealth-throughits courtsand publicrealm (media)-is evaluating isnot theverity ofBettyBillawag's and other Belyuen Aborigines' descriptions,but whether or not their wordsrepresentthecommonbeliefsofthecommunity and, if theydo, whether or not thesebeliefscan be said to reflect an evolving set of Aboriginal traditions. The signifi- canceof culture isits presenceor absencein the person and communityand its positiverelationship to traditions, not its positiveor negativerelationship toenvironmental oreconomic"facts." Thustherealconflictoverthe groundsfor assessingthevalueproducedby human ac- tion in theenvironment is never addressedin formal legal venuesalthoughitmay betentativelyraisedin political settings.A fulldiscussionisforeverdeferred tosecond- level issues:Are thesebeliefssufficientlytraditional? Are thereasufficientnumberofbelieverstoconstitutea community?Howdoesthenation-statebalancetheeco- nomicneedsof theentirenationwiththecultural tradi- tionsandbeliefsofaminority population?Thecultural organization of Western disbelief-itsdeepdisbeliefthat Dreamingscanlistenin anythingbutametaphorical sense-forevereludesthe grasp ofliberal political-eco- nomic theory and the environmentalism that sprouts from it. The incorporationof someform of Aboriginal law into Commonwealth legislationmerely servesto mask further thesubterraneanmachinationsofWesternculturalno- tionsofproduction,value,leisure,and labor,theirsub- jectsandobjects,and therelocationofobjectivityfrom thecultural tothe ecological-economicrealm.But such maskingmustoccurinliberaldemocraticnationslike Australia, where multicultural "rights"must be reconciled with economicand environmental"reality."5 In manycritical ways, political-economicanthropol- ogy (even the most recent versionof culture and political economy)has also sidesteppedthe perplexing problem of how to incorporateor represent local non-Western under- standingsoflabor andtheenvironment.Somepolitical- economicstudieshavebegunto acknowledgetherela- tionshipbetween dialogicallyconstitutedlocal knowledgeand globalpolitical-economicprocesses. SincePeterandJaneSchneider'sclassicCultureand Political-EconomyinWestern Sicily,theattempthas been made to move away from a world-systemsapproach and toward a theoreticalperspectivethat emphasizesthe culturalconstrualofpoliticsandtheeconomy(di Leonardo 1991:26-27; Roseberry 1989). In its most elegant form, politicaleconomyis understoodas a framework for analyzingunequalrelationsandaccesstoculturaland materialresourcesandpower.6 However,seriousques- tionsremain: Isthereaninternallimittopolitical-eco- nomic approaches to the cultural constructionof econom- ics?Ifcultureisalens through whichthelocal group mediatesthepracticesand policiesofthelarger system (Ortner 1989:83), then what ofthelens ofthelarger system and its practicesof knowing? Is a lens sufficient to explain the manner in which culture and powerarticulate? In any case,howare thesebeliefsand practicesin conflictwith BettyBillawag'swaysof knowingthehuman-environ- mentalnexus?Andhowaretheculturalassumptions underlying politicaleconomylinked todominant institu- tionsof power?Is this cultural underpinning reinscribing dominant power over local minority communitieseven as theresearcheristrying toempowerlocalsociocultural practicesor, at least, to portray the systematicand histori- caltiesbetweenlocaland globalculturalandpolitical- economicinstitutions (Wilmsen1989a; Comaroff and Co- maroff 1991)? The Subject of Labor If my answertoMarjorie Bilbil is correct,if the land commissionerdoesnot believethat the rock is a semiotic agent but does believe that the Aboriginal women and men believethat it is, thenhe isleft with theproblemof how tothinkabouttheirbelief.What doesitindicateabout them? About himself? About theeconomicviabilityofa multiculturalnation?Morespecifically,hemighthave wondered,likehispredecessorsinthejudiciarybefore him, howthesebeliefsaffectwhoisgranted sovereignty over land and howcitizenry rights are distributed. Sincethecolonialperiod,nation-stateshavedenied fullcitizenshiptohunter-gatherersbasedpartlyonthe beliefthat they had not sufficientlyextractedthemselves fromorproductivelyengagedtheir environment,and partly on the more pragmatic "self interestof the colonial powers,whodid not wantto behampered by the incon- venienceof acknowledgingtherights of indigenouspeo- ples,orofcolonialrivals whomighttry toacquireland fromthosepeoples" (McRae etal. 1991:110). Colonial legaltheoristsandEnlightenmentthinkers bridgedthe conceptualand pragmaticsideof indigenousdisenfran- chisementbybasingthepartialityof hunter-gatherer property rights on their supposedpartial achievementof human subjectivity. The hunter and collectorownedonly the"Acorns hepicktupunderanOak or theAppleshe gatheredfrom theTreesin theWood," becausetothese objects"something (i.e., intentional labor) wasannexed" (Locke1988[1690]:28-32). Hunter-gathers did not own the AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR /ELIZABETHA.POVINELLI507 land through which they moved becausenothing had been added and becausethe human subject who could "add to" and"transform"theland had yettobeformed; theland remained"empty" (terranuUius) ofpeopleor,more precisely,"unoccupied" (asagainstoccupatio)byfully humansubjectsand thecivilnationstheywereableto create (Hocking1988). It is true that somecoloniallegal theoristslikede Vittoria, Grotius, Vattel, andPufendorf argued thatindigenousAmericansownedtheirland and thus"should not be deprived of civil and politicalrights." But they also argued that "Spaincould assumerights over theIndians and their land if it wasfor thebenefitof the tribes" (Schaffer1988:22). Not surprisingly, thedubious bestowalofcivilbenefitsbecamethekeyrhetorical meansthrough which indigenousland was acquired.7 The prevailing viewwas that the rights that Aborigines had to their resources,and in somecolonialcontextstheir land, werebasedon occupancy(whichsimply dependedupon the presenceof people) notownership(whichdepended uponthetransformationoftheenvironmenttypically throughcultivation). Becausenoone prior totheCrown ownedtheland, Aboriginal communalrights toit werea subsetof Crown rights to and needsfor it. By implication, AboriginescouldalienatetheirlandonlytotheCrown (McRae et al. 1991:110). Anthropologists,ecologists,environmentalists,and legaltheoristswhodefend hunter-gatherers'andthe fourthworld'senvironmentalandhumanrightsagainst widerstateand businessinterestsusuallydosoagainst thiscolonialbackground,buttheyalsodosowithina theoreticalframeworkimportedfrom theWest and built uponWesternconceptsofwhathappenswhenhumans act in the natural world. In particular, they partition local cultural beliefsabout thelimits and meaningsof human and environmentfrom scientificallyapprehended "facts" of ecologicalandeconomicsystems.Forexample,they mightarguethatnomatterwhatindigenouspeoplebe- lieveoccurswhentheyact in theenvironment, thisdoes notalter thefactthattheyrelyontheseenvironmental resourcesfor their livelihood.Or they might argue that by believingthelandissentientorpopulatedbyspiritual agents,indigenouspeopleare better able to manage their ecosystems-andthiscanbeshownby measuringtheir work-leisureratios,theratebywhichtheyaltertheir environment,orotheraspectsoftheireconomicprac- tices.Inallcases,however,writersrelyonWesternno- tionsofhumanintentionality,subjectivity,andproduc- tionembeddedin the verylegaldiscoursestheyseekto oppose,whichcreatesan unresolvabletensionbetween thepoliticalgoalsoftheseprojectsandthetheoretical frameworksin which they reside. This is apparent in even themostradical reconceptionsof gatherer-hunter socie- ties. Three scholars' works bear special attention, for each tries in a very different way to upsethistorical treatments of the fourth world. First, Robert Gordon, moving from Edwin Wilmsen's provocativework, has argued that the so-calledbushmen orSanpeoplesinNamibiawereproducedbycolonial policiesof land appropriation and material dispossession (1992). The debate over the origins of the Namibian bush- men has been long and acrimonious.Whatis most striking is the careful attention each sidehas given to the material basisofNamibian San life.While boththosewho argue thatSan groupsaredispossessedpastoralistsand those whoholdthattheyarebesiegedhuntersandgatherers quotelocalpeople,the argument intheliteraturehas centeredon the economicand ecologicalfacts of the case and how they should be measured and assessed.8 And who couldargue against resting thecaseon thosefacts? Tim Ingoldhascritiquedapproachestothefourth worldinquitedifferentterms.Hehasstronglyargued againstconceptualizingthehunting modeof production in a way that defineshunter-gatherers as lessfully human thanothersocialgroups. InhisThe Appropriationof Nature (1987),Ingoldnotesthecorrelationbetweenthe denialofhuman and civil rights to hunter-gatherers and theconfusionoftheeconomicactivityofpeoplewho hunt and collectfor thebehaviorof animal foragers.To counterthis,hereturnstohumanintentionalityasthe "component ofactionthat transforms theforager-preda- tor into a gatherer-hunter"(Ingold 1987:95). Intentionality becomesthe key diacritic to the human; or, echoing Marx, whoechoedthehumanistswhoprecededhim, through "purposeful action" man establishedhimself as a subject and thus distinguished himself from the animal and object world. The distinction betweenthe extractive behavior of nonhumananimalsand theappropriative (fully anddis- tinctivelyhuman)behaviorofhuntersandcollectorsis "the subjectiveintentionalitythat is brought to bearon the procurement process,and by virtue of which it is lifted from thesphereof extractivebehaviour to that of appro- priativeaction" (Ingold1987:79,106-107).The defining feature of productionis not, then, producing in excessor transforming one'senvironment but "the subjectionof an extractiveprocesstointentionalcontrol" (Ingold 1987:105). Itisthroughthissubjectionthatthehuman subjectisproduced,anditisatthismomentthatthe primate became thehuman.9 In a seriesof essays,Nuit Bird-Davidtakesyet a third tack to the reconceptualizationof hunter-gatherer socie- ties by rooting their difference in their "attitude"or "style" toward the natural environment rather than in their mate- rial or social organization (technologyor mode of produc- tion).Through thisredefinitionsheseekstoalter public policyregardinghunter-gathererpeople.Bird-David's analysis ofthe "giving environment" (1990,1992a) and the "cosmic economyof sharing" (1992b)among immediate- return societies(thesouthIndianNayaka, theMbuti of Zaire, the Batek of Malaysia) seeksto tear down the walls dividing humans,animals,andnatural objectsandenvi- 508AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST*VOL. 97,No.3*SEPTEMBER1995 ronmentson the basisof agency.By attempting todo so, shepromisestoprovidea startling critique ofeconomic and politicalpolicypremisedon that divide. Rather than grounding hunter-gatherer societyin universals of human nature,shemovesfrom"the natives' pointofview" and describesthesimilaritiesand linkagesbetweenhuman and natural agencies.She writes,"each group has animis- tic notionswhich attribute life and consciousnessto natu- ral phenomenaincludingtheforestitselfand partsofit suchas hilltops,tall trees,and river sources" (Bird-David 1992b:29). "Natural (human-like) agencies" socializewith, givegiftsoffoodto,andhavepersonalitieslikethe Nayaka,Mbuti,andBatek.Inshort,whenBird-David discussesintentionalactioninan economiccontextshe seeksto showhowhumans organize their material activi- tiesbasedon the assumptionthat a natural sentientenvi- ronmentwill give what isneeded.It is through an appre- hensionoftheseculturalframeworks(metaphorsin particular)thatWestern theoristsand policymakerscan begintomakesenseofimmediate-return societies'eco- nomic actions,in particular, why these societiesthink and act as if they"have it made" (Bird-David 1992b:32). A nagging questionremains. Do hunter-gatherers, no matterhowyoudefinethem,reallyhaveabundantre- sourcesordotheyjustthinktheydo?That is,arethe Nayaka, Mbuti, and Batek deluding themselves,especially giventhenationaland globalcontextoftheirenviron- mentalpractices?Bird-David iscarefultonotethat the veryformulationofquestionssuchasthisonedepends upona Western preoccupationwith scarcity andfamine andwiththe uncertaintyofthenaturalizedobjectified world. Nevertheless,Bird-David speculatesonhowbe- liefs affect people'sactual material conditions and on how attentionto thesebeliefs might reformulate public policy with regard to hunter-gatherers.It isin theefforttoan- swer thesequestionsthat she ultimately returns to a quali- tative divisionbetweennot humans, animals, and objects but cultural belief and economic-ecologicalreality. Turn- ingtometaphortheoryasacommunicative bridgebe- tweendelayed-return societies (into which Western capi- talismandAustralian Aboriginesfall)and immediate- return societies,she argues that specificmetaphorssuch asnaturalenvironmentasbankallow policymakersto reconceivethe relationship betweenhumans and theani- mate natural world. Through a metaphorical bridge, poli- cymakerswouldbeabletoseethat hunter-gatherers' attitudetowardtheenvironmentreallydoesgenerate wealth.Thusmetaphortheory-changingourlenses- holdsouttoBird-David the possibilityof achievingan ultimatelyconsensual community.RecoursetoHaber- masiannotionsofideal communication,however,pre- sentsitsownsetofproblems.First, a tendencytoward cultural reificationsetsin whereby the authenticstyleof hunter-gatheringisa"trust in abundancy" undermining those groupswhodo notshowsuch unswervingfaith in the good temper of the environment. Second, too singular a focuson communicationturns attentionaway from the knitting of cultural frameworks and social,economic,and politico-legalpower. And it assumesthat communication and translation are theonly barriers to achieving an ideal communityratherthan exploringthewaysthatrepre- sentationand conceptualizationarisefromthevarious effortsofsocial groupstosecure resources,entrench power,and understand the historicalconditionsin which they find themselves. What hasbeentheeffectofthese evolvingcultural and political-economicframeworksfor how hunter-gath- erer labor action is valued and evaluated in national legal and economicrealms? On thesurface, altering theessen- tial meaningof productionfrom"transformation and in- crease" to "intentional subjection" counters legal and eco- nomicpoliciesthatdiscriminate againstcommunities whoseeconomichistory or praxis includes hunter-gather- ing.In Australia, whereI haveconducted long-termre- search,the reconceptualizationof Aboriginalsocioeco- nomicsseemstohaveaided generallyin thecourts' and legislature'spositivereevaluationof Aborigines'tradi- tionalcultural practices,if not specificallytheir contem- porary labor practices.For example,in the1992 Austra- lian High Court decisionEddieMabo v. Queensland,the doctrinethatAustralia wasterra nulliusat thepointof colonizationwasoverturned becauseit wasseento rest ona "discriminatory denigrationof indigenousinhabi- tants,theirsocial organization and customs." Moreover, the High Court argued that for Commonwealth,state,or territory governments to extinguish native title, they must meet the nondiscriminatory standards laid out in the Com- monwealthRacial Discrimination Act of 1975, which bars the taking of Aboriginal land without justcompensation. The broad scopeof this decision potentiallysubjectedall unalienated Crown lands in Australia to a traditional Abo- riginal land claim. While seeminglya striking reversal of previouscourt positions(but seePovinelli 1994), theMabo decisionand prior stateland rights legislationdid notdiscuss directly how to value or evaluate Aboriginal labor, exceptto meas- urehowitcontributed tothematerial well-beingof the community (that is, in terms of "detriment").x? Thus in the Aboriginal Land Rights (NorthernTerritory) Act of1976, theLand Commissionis chargedwith examininghowa successfulland claim might harm the economic develop- mentof the larger region andhowan unsuccessfulclaim mightharm theeconomiclivelihoodofthe Aboriginal claimants. Local understandings of labor action in no way aidinthiseconomicevaluation. Instead,Aboriginal no- tionsof what happens whenhumans work in the environ- mentfallwithinabroader categorycalled "Aboriginal traditions."Tosummarizegrossly,intherecentMabo decisionandinmostearlierpiecesofstate land-rights legislation,Aborigineswhohave managedtomaintain AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR /ELIZABETHA.POVINELLI509 somesufficientleveloftraditionallife (theircultural knowledges,traditionalsocialpractices,andland ties) can be granted unalienable title over their traditional land. What constitutesa viable level of traditional life is unclear. SomeHigh Court justicesdistinguishedbetweenthose contemporary socialpracticesthat have legitimate ties to "traditional laworcustom"andthosethatdonot,with someleewayprovidedfor cultural change.For instance, Brennan'sdiscussionofculturalchangeappearsquite broad; for traditions tomaintaintheir legalveracityAb- original groups must simply continue "to acknowledge the laws" and "to observethecustoms" sofar as practicable. Likewise,DeaneandGaudron bowtothedynamismof culture,apparently acknowledgingcurrent trends in cul- turaltheory,whichseetraditionsasfluidratherthan frozenandseeethnographyandlawasalways"caught betweencultures" (Clifford1988:11).11 In theirview,an Aboriginal societycanchangeand stillretain traditional rights toits land, "provided any changesdo notdiminish or extinguishtherelationshipbetweena particular tribe or other group and particular land." Irrespectiveof their purity, then,traditionsactasthelitmustestofcultural cohesionand land rights; thelabor theorythat Betty Bil- lawagespousesisasubsetofthesetraditions.Insum, while Aboriginal traditionsare the locusof valuein land- rightscases,thesesameculturalbeliefsareleftbehind whenthe evaluation of Aboriginal labor actionis made- Aboriginal beliefsabout work and Aboriginal productivity and labor actionare separated,thelatter quantified and qualified by Western empiricism.What thenare Belyuen thoughtson labor action and howdo they represent what happenswhen they act in theenvironment? The Subject of the Dreaming If, in Westem politicaleconomyand humanism more generally,the feature thatdifferentiateshuman life from animal or object existenceis subjectiveintentionality and appropriation, then analysesbasedon thisdifferenceare unable to describe adequately Belyuen praxis. At Belyuen, subjectiveintentionality and appropriation are traits that characterizehuman, animal, andobjectlives.Or, all hu- mans, animals, and objectshave the potentialto be inten- tionalsubjects; if humansare unique, it is in their ability tointerpret the meaning of an eventor todetermineif it has any significant meaning at all (Povinelli1993b). Even here, humans are not absolutelydifferentiated from other beings.What are the implicationsof thiscultural organi- zation of material-economiclife for howBelyuenwork is valuedand evaluated? The Dreaming can be understoodas the given condi- tionofthehumanandnatural worldestablishedin 'the ancestralpast.Therearemanytypesof Dreamings,in- cludingdescent Dreamings(therrawen)and conception Dreamings(maroi).Butallmatter(humanandanimal bodies,objects,andenvironments) isconceivedasthe congealedlabor of ancestral Dreaming beings.While the mythicactionsofsomedreamtimeancestorswerecon- centratedatcertainnow-sacredsites,thelandismore generallypermeatedbysignsof their present-dayinten- tionality and agency.So, for example, in the region where I work, certain water holeswere formed by the travels of Dingo Dreaming, who moved underground, popping up at certain placesto perform certain feats. In all the places he cameup, he left a water hole.These water holesnot only mark whathappenedin thepast,theyalsoshowwhere Dingo remains today. It is a rather simple task to show how Belyuen women attributesubjectiveintentionalitytohumans,animals, andobjectsandhowthisorganizestheireconomicand interpretivepractices.12 Becausethe Dreamingmandate providesall humans, animals, and objects with the poten- tialtoactasanagent,alleventsmaybearesultofa Dreaming's, animal's, or object's subjective intentionality. Everyone,evensmallchildren, monitors bodies,objects, andtheenvironmentforchangesor oddbehaviorsthat might portend critical meaning-meaningthat may be the differencebetweena hunting trip resultingin bountyor calamity or, more seriously,in a person'slife or death. Not to be able to interpret the messagesthat animals, objects, persons,or Dreamingssendcanradicallytransforma person'srelationshipwiththe Dreamingenvironment: rather than being an interlocutor with a patron Dreaming, thepersonmaybecomepreytoa predatoryDreaming. Threecasessufficetogivea senseof therangeof ways that the Dreaming environmentinteracts with human so- cial and economicaction. Case 1: Belyuen's Lights (June 3, 1993) During a short visit to Belyuen in the dry season,I was toldabouta youngwomen's pidjawagaidj(maturation) ceremonyheldat Belyuenand the surrounding country- sidethe Decemberbefore.Women from all over the Daly River, CoxPeninsula,and Darwin regionscame and par- ticipatedin the making ofa young Belyuenwoman.One ofmymothers(BG)describedaneventthat happened during one eveningof the long ceremony. ThesouthernDalyRiver womenwerehousedina small adult education building in the back of theBelyuen communitycloseto a large water hole. This water hole is the site of a number of Dreamings including Belyuen, after whomthecommunityisnamed.Belyuenisatrickster clever-man and a conceptionDreaming for many Belyuen children.OnoneofthefirstnightsoftheDalyRiver women'svisit,Belyuenemergedfrom thewaterholein the form of a big light. BG noted the causeof the big light: "different sweat,different language...lucky no one sick." BBM agreed and added, "never been do that with us when 510AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST*VOL.97,NO. 3*SEPTEMBER1995 we[have] ceremony.That oldman[Belyuen] beenhold back. He knew weasked them[the Daly River women]to comeand help us with thisceremony." Case 2: The Nyoidjand MyTruck(June 5,1993) At midday,14 older women,assortedchildren, and I went to Bagadjet, a small vine jungleon the westcoastof theCoxPeninsula,tofish,crab, dig yams,and shootfor wallaby and pig. Soonafter arriving I left with oneof my daughters,shotgun inhand,walkingdownthecoastto- ward a seriesof swampswhere pigs sometimeswallowin theafternoonheat.We returnedlaterwithno pigbuta small wallaby. While we were away, the other women and children had collectedcrab, shellfish,yam, and sugarbag (indigenoushoney). Aswecookedanddistributedthefood,twoofmy mothers(YR andLA) toldmethatanyoidj(atypeof spirit)intheformofablackcrowhadbeenmucking around with my truck while I was gone. They explained to methatthenyoidjdid notrecognizemy truck. YR said, "it's differentfromlasttime[fromtheutilityvehicleI rented the previous year]." Not to worry, they assured me, eachofthemhadsungout(calledout)tothe nyoidj, lettingit knowthat thenewtruckwasmine-"sameold Beth." We all laughed. LA concludedour short talk with the statement,"Mightbewhy you beenlucky today." Case 3: The Ganduand the Wagalwagal (February14, 1989) Hereisastorythatmymother(BBM) toldmeone afternoon at theWomen's ResourceCenter at Belyuen. Sometimeswhen you are walkingthroughthe bush you see and hear that grass in front of you go shshshshsh.You think ngaden [goanna]made that grass go shshshshsh.But when you try and catch it you meet a speartight betweenyouryingi [breasts].Gandu [foreignman],not ngaden,that one. Wagai ganiya [finished,you'relyingdown now;that is, you'redead]. But if you listen first, that wagalwagal [honeyeaterbird]will sing out werrigwerrig and you'll know: that's not a ngaden, that is a gandu mungul [malevolentmale stranger]. In thesethreeexamples,thesubjectofintentional action isclearly not human. In the first case,light actsas the medium for a Dreaming water hole (Belyuen) to signal the foreignness(strangeness)of thesouthern Daly River women.At Belyuen,strangercarriesa variety ofmean- ings,includingunknownperson,personfromnonlocal lands,or personwhoseunusual actionsmake him or her a stranger to kin or residential group. This strangeness(or foreignness,"im different") can causeDreamings and the landscapemoregenerallytoreactin a dramatic fashion. Dreamingsitesand ecologicalenvironmentsbecome volatileandunproductive:inausuallyplacidharbor, wavessuddenlysurgeup and swampa seahunter's din- ghy; or, after women have had no luck finding crab in what is usually a productive mangrove, winds rage on the coast sending blinding sand. If socialconditionsallow, Belyuen womenwillattribute thecauseofsuchquick and unex- pectedenvironmentalchangestothepresenceof "strange" sweatand language.Nonlocalpeople'swords and bodiesare notrecognizedby thelandscape,causing it to becomeupsetand jealous.In contrast, familiar sweat and language make the countryside sweetand productive. Thus, in the first case above, the foreign sounds and smells of the southern Daly River womencaused Belyuen to send outa bright glowinglight from a dark deeppool,but no more sinceheknewthat the nonlocalwomenwere there helpinglocalwomen.Case3simplysuggeststhatthe abilitytoactwithsubjectiveintentionalityincludesnot onlyDreamings(therrawenand maroi)andspirits (nyoidj, Case 2) but also the animal world. The Gandu and Wagalwagal story is just one of a large body of narratives thatdescribewhichanimalsand plantshave knowledge of or relationshipswith other animals, places, people,and environments. Not only are the subjectsof the abovenarratives not human,theirnonhumannessisanecessarypartofthe performativity of the story. The fact that Dreaming water holescan hear and smell the language and sweat offoreign womenallowsBG and MB tousethestoryofBelyuen's light for specificsocialends.But BG and MB dependon theirlisteners knowingthesocialrelationsthatexist among the groupsand the environments being discussed in the story, as wellas on the sentientnature of the water hole.Listeners(myselfand others to whom the story has been told) canbe expectedto interpret the appearance of the light as a (potential)indexical sign showing the proxi- materelationshipamongsouthernDalyRiverwomen, Belyuen women,and local Dreamings-whichgroups are "close up" and "more further"from Cox Peninsula Dream- ings(usuallytherrawen Dreamings)andthuswhich groupsare right andwrongfor the countryside.Indeed, justin caseI havenot fully understoodtheimport of the light,BBM carefullynotes,"never beendothatwithus when we [have] ceremony." However, this statement does notsimplyopposethesouthernDalyRiverwomento Belyuen women.Instead it commentson yet a third set of people:regionalAboriginaland non-Aboriginalgroups who claim that Belyuen families are themselvessquatters on the Cox Peninsula-migrantsfrom the south displaced during the colonial period-andthat their real country lies onthecoastalsideoftheDalyRiver,severalhundred miles away. BBM's statement comments indirectlyon this claim. If thiswereso,why doesBelyuenreact only when otherpeopleworkandconduct ceremonyontheCox Peninsula?Inshort,thebeliefthat Dreamings(water holesor otherwise)canlisten,smell,andreactallows Belyuen individuals to use thesereactions to negotiate the hierarchicalrelations amongsocial groupsandland- scapeswithout beingresponsiblefor thesocioeconomic AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR/ELIZABETH A.POVINELLI511 implicationsof thosehierarchies (seealso Myers 1986 and N. Williams 1987). After all, Belyuenwomensay,"not us, that Dreaming nowbeendo'im." In Case2, foreignness isagain theimmediatecause of an unusual event. This time instead of an environmental feature (a water hole),a crow commentson the presence of strangeobjectsand people.The crowin thiscaseisa nyoidj--thespirit of a human ancestor lodged in a place where the personspent a significant or meaningful part of his or her life-ofa deceasedaunt of mine. Thus, as in the first case,thesocialwork accomplishedwith this second narrative dependsboth on a shared belief that animals act intentionallyand on the shared background knowledgeof thesocialtiesbinding theindividualsand environments described.Milig isasiteonthewestcoastoftheCox Peninsulawheretwoseniorwomen (MB andBA)and I led an outstationduring my first visit to Belyuenin1984. I was justa young kid (22 years old) and knew nothing-I was not an anthropologist or anthropology student. More- over,I hadneverbeentoan Aboriginal communityand knew very little about Aboriginal beliefs.However,grow- ing up in therural woodsofLouisiana and having spent much of my life camping, I was strong, a fairly good hunter (andgatherer),and comfortableliving outdoors.During thetimeIspentworkingforMB andBA, huntingwith them,choppingwood,driving,andsoforth,Ilearned everything I know-they"schooledme up." Bagadjet is a small densevine jungle up the east coast from Milig where MB, BA,andIspentmuchofourtime,diggingyams, lookingforsugarbag,andcollectingcrabandshellfish. Moreimportantly,Bagadjet isthelastplacewherewe hunted(andtheplacewherewecriedforeach other) beforeI left for two years. Soon after, BA becametoosick to camp on her own; she died of emphysema in 1989 when I wasbackatBelyuen.When womenand I nowhuntat Bagadjet, crowssometimesactstrangelyandwomen ofteninterpret them as being BA. Knowing the social ties that bind peopleto each other and toplacescritically affectstheinterpretationand so- cioeconomicuseof nyoidj stories.Becauseofhowthis nyoidj treatsme and my things, I am like other strangers (especiallywithmy Western come-and-golifestyle)-de- pendent upon Belyuen women to keep me from becoming preytoa predatoryDreaming-andespeciallybeholden toBelyuenwomenfor teaching and nourishing mewhen I hadnothing.The nyoidj indexesthevastsocial,emo- tional, and intellectualdistancethat I have traveledsince firstarriving atBelyuen, andit pointstothenetworkof socialobligations,in travelingthisdistance,Ihaveac- crued. The onelittle wallaby I shotcannot begintorepay thissocialdebt,althoughitisastart.Again,the nyoidj story's socialproductivity is anchored in a certain cultural framework-crowscan be subjective agents bearing mes- sagestosavvylisteners.Other Aboriginal andnon-Ab- originalgroupswhodonotaccedetothisculturallogic are not moved by its performance.Or they are moved for other reasonswhile accedingto its form. As I and many othershavenoted,someAborigines' belief that all materiality is a potentialsource of intention- driven meaningplaceshigh valueoninterpretive ability (seealsoMyers1986:67 andN. Williams 1985). Humans may be just another subject in the landscape, but they face thedauntingtaskofsortingthroughandweighingthe significanceofcountlessminorand major odditiesthat occureveryday.What doesitmeanthatso-and-so'sson has suddenlylosta lot of weight? Is hiswife pregnant or hasaclever-man"kidney-fatted" him?13Why didasea turtleactinanoddmanner?Isitreallyaconception Dreaming (maroi)or did theharpoonnot lodgeproperly in itsback? Why did a waterholesuddenlydry up? Is it saddened(mariwedjirr)by the death of an older woman or are local white residents sinking too many water bores? Becauseall socialrelations(linksamong persons,social groups, animals, objects,and places)create potentialso- cial rights andobligations,theability tomakeor refute linkagesconvincinglyisa highlyvaluedand potentially valuable skill. In the contextof contemporary land claims andlanddisputes,whereAboriginalmenandwomen mustelaboratetheties linking and separating numerous individuals and groups to or from various places,not only for localAborigines but alsofor non-Aboriginal lawyers, landcommissioners,andanthropologists,thevalueof suchinterpretive ability hascertainly notlessened.Here I wanttoexplorebrieflyhowBelyuenwomenattribute causeto the natural odditiesthat spring up during every- day land activity in the faceof twopotentiallycompeting environmentalexplanations:the Dreaming anddevelop- ment. Case 4: The Four-Legged Emu(June 20,1992) After finishinganoutstationsurvey,ahandfulof older womenand I pulled into an outstationcamp on the interior oftheCox Peninsula. The married couple who run the camp weregone.They had left a fewhours earlier on a shootingexpedition.Expectingthat they wouldhave a number of kangaroo, wallaby, and, hopefully, bullockon their return, our party decided to visit with other members ofthecampandawaitthemarriedcouple.Whilewe waited and drank tea, my aunt (MB) told us about a series ofeventsthathadoccurredintheDalyRivercoastal region. During theearly dry season,on an outstationon the southsideoftheDaly River, twobrotherscameupona four-legged emu drinking from a water hole. The brothers trappedtheemuand broughtittoWadeye(previously Port Keats)sothata seniorman and womanfrom their family-onwhoseland theoutstationis located-might look at it. Upon seeing the emu, the older man and woman insistedthat it quickly be taken back to where it had been 512AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST.VOL. 97,NO. 3.SEPTEMBER1995 found. This thetwobrothersdid, releasing theerpu near the samewater hole. Why did the emu have four legs? What did the old man and womanknow?Belyuenwomencurrently havetwo seeminglycompetingframeworksforansweringthese and otherrelatedquestions.On theonehand, theymay attribute thecauseoftheemu'sbodyanomalytotoxic pollution caused by economicdevelopmentsin the region, forexample,exploratoryon-andoffshoreoildrilling. Theseoil wellsprovidea sourceof much-neededroyalty money for the structurally impoverished Aboriginal fami- lies living in the Cox Peninsula and Daly River regions, but theyalsothreatentoupsetthenaturalandDreaming ecologyoftheregion.Many Aboriginal groupsarenow engaged in heated inter- and intragroup discussionsabout whether safe drilling should be allowed to proceed.On the other hand, Belyuen womenmay attribute the emu's odd- ity to Dreaming intentionality.Like the Belyuenlight, the four legs are a sign that somethingor someonedid some- thing wrong-someone or somethingwaswrong for the area or actedin a wrong way. Or perhaps this is a Dream- ingthatpeoplehadforgottenaboutanditsplace (its sacred site) is the water holefrom which it wasdrinking. Of course,the two perspectivesare often articulated-no finaldifferenceexistsbetweennaturalandecological environments.AsMBlaterspeculated,theDreaming mighthavesentoutthefour-legged emutosignal the damage thatoilwellscancausetotheregion. The four- leggedemu, like theBelyuenlight, rearticulates Aborigi- nalandnon-Aboriginal frameworksthathavealready beenhybridized by the political-jural and economicinsti- tutionsand regulations establishedfor (or in response to) Aboriginal traditions. Federal and state parliaments have passedregulationsthatforcecompaniestodobusiness with the Dreaming. Not surprisingly, Aborigines now read their capital needsthrough signs the Dreaming sends. Whether oneexplanatory frame is picked(Dreaming or development) or whether they are (re)articulated, how suchquestionsare answereddependsupontheelabora- tionorrefutationofthetiesbinding thevarioushuman, animal, environmental,and Dreaming actorsand groups involved in both actual and narrative events (see Bauman 1986). Inshort,explanationreliesonthesociopolitical relationsand the speechactsthat mediate them,as vari- ous clusters of peopletry to make senseof a strange event and the reasons specificpeopleare recounting that event. The speechacts are themselvesorganized by local princi- plesfor agreeing and disagreeing, for forming communal narratives, and for serializing persons,places,and events (see Povinelli1993a:253-270). People ask, What relations are motivatingtheeventand thenarration oftheevent? The sheer number of possiblesites and levelsof intention- ality complicatethe task of interpretation. For instance,a listenertrying topinpointwherecauseorintentionality liesin theaboveemustoryispresentedwithnumerous points of entry. Answers to thesedirect and indirect ques- tionslead listeners to remark upon and evaluatetheemu story in starkly different ways,from dismissing the entire eventas"nothing, justemu" toproclaimingthosein- volvedashaving"rubbished" aDreaming foreconomic gain and as needing to be harshly punished.Sitesof entry may includethe following: The storyteller andthe audience:What might her motiva- tionbe? Doesshehavetiestoany of the people,places, or animals discussed?Is shefor or against development? What is my relationship to the storyteller? Humanactorsinthe story:What werethemotivations that led peopleto act in the way that they did here, to take and thenreturn theemu? Howiseachpersonrelated to Dreamings in theregion? Are any oftheactorsinvolved in a land dispute where the emu was found, and if so, with whom? Doesanyone have an emu Dreaming on or off the Wadeye community? Dreamingactorsinthestory:Is thereDreaminginten- tionalityhere? Doesthis makesenseof whata Dreaming mightdo? Why might it havedonethisin thisparticular instance? While in Belyuenwomen'seyestheabovecasesare allinstancesofnonhumansubjectiveintentionality,in whatsenseare theyinstancesofhuman and nonhuman appropriativeaction?In otherwords,howdotheycon- form toor diverge from Western notionsof property and larceny?T4Cases1, 2,and3 describenonhumanappro- priativeactioninsofar as they includeactionthat is con- sciousand purposeful.Butnoneofthecasesdescribes appropriative actionin thesenseof settingasidemateri- als,objects,or bodiesfor a particular purposeor some- one'sexclusiveuse. However,there are many sensesand casesin which human and nonhuman actorsappropriate materials,objects,andbodiesfortheirexclusiveuse. Dreamings(therrawenandmaroi)appropriatehuman bodiesand landscapesin waysI have discussedat length elsewhere(Povinelli1993a). Briefly,conceptionDream- ings (maroi) appropriate the human reproductive process itself-theconceptionspirit "realizes itself as the child."15 Moreover, all human life is, at onelevel, the material that descenttherrawen Dreamings have appropriated in order to manifest themselvesin each successive generation (see also Munn 1970 and Myers 1986:50). Finally, the Dreaming hasalreadyappropriatedtheentiregeography,estab- lishing inhumans"a habitofmindthatlooksbehind objectstoeventsand seesin objectsa signof something else"whereinthe"unusual isvaluableinitself'(Myers 1986:67).NancyMunnhassummarizedthesevarious Dreaming appropriations of materiality (or instantiations throughavarietyofnaturalmaterials) inthefollowing AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR/ELIZABETH A.POVINELLI513 ways:"(1) metamorphosis(thebodyoftheancestoris changedintosomematerialobject);(2)imprinting (the ancestorleavesthe impressionof his body or of some tool he uses);and (3) externalization(the ancestortakes some objectout of his body)" (1970:142). In sum, Belyuen womendo not assumethat transfor- mation, appropriation, or intentionality are attributes that resideeitheruniquely or mostfully in thehumanrealm. Rather, humans are simply one node in a field of possible intentionalityandappropriation.TheDreamingepito- mizesthetransformationandappropriationofland- scapes',humans',andanimals'bodiesand personalities for reasonsindividualsand socialgroupscanonlytry to interpret. Howdotheseexpandednodesofsubjectiveinten- tionalityand appropriation changehowAboriginal work andleisureshouldbeevaluated?Inanenvironmentin which Dreamings, animals, and spirits (nyoidj) are always potentiallymonitoring one'saction,whatconstitutesthe boundariesbetweenworkand leisure?If locallanguage and sweatmake the environment productive and sweet- one'sbodilyproductionsareconstantlyproducing the environmentalconditionsinwhichoneis acting-are thereany limits to what constituteswork? Case 5: HuntingRelaxation(April15, 1989) After a tragic death in thecommunity, BBM sickens andasksthatI takeherfamilyfishingand huntingfor warrgu(mangroveworms,Teledo sp.).We negotiatebe- tweentwopossiblesitesand wind up on the northcoast of theCox Peninsula. It is quite a nicemid-April day. One of my older grandmothers (djemele)clears the ground for a smallcamp,whileseveralofuswalkup thebeachfor turtle eggsandseveralotherswalk throughthescrub behind the beach to look for sugarbag. As our party walks alongthebeach,BG andher youngdaughtercollecta variety of plastic bottles, plates, and cups and several sets of unmatched thongs brought in by the tide, and they are accusedof shopping. BBM spendsmostof theday sleep- ing on the beach, listening to gossip,or telling and hearing oldstoriesaboutthecampsite.Aftereveryonereturns from theirexcursions,webakeand eata big lour(flour damper) and comedbeef before returning to the commu- nity at dusk. In Case 5, BBM seemsto usea hunting and gathering tripasarecreational (leisure)activityratherthanan economicone in order to leavebehind the stressfulsocial conditionsoftheBelyuencommunityforthe relaxing rhythmsofthesea.Theworkof mourning, grief,death, anddespairislessenedtoa significantdegreebythe leisureof sleepingand relaxingon a longwhitebeachor walkingthrough thebush collectingsweetfoodsfor the bellyandoldmemoriesforthemind.Sometimesin the midstofsuch huntingandgatheringtrips,moreover,a woman(or man) will discoversigns that help make sense of a recent traumatic event. Indeed, women and men often walk through the bush lookingas much for the meanings anddistractionsitholdsasforthefoodsitprovides. Whether theyare emphasizingfoodor memory,Belyuen women'suseof hunting and gathering to producerelaxa- tionandeaseof mind hasalready beeninfluencedby its juxtapositiontonewmodesof productionand their con- comitantsocialformations(sedentarysettlementlife, wagelabor, and welfare).Belyuen womencompare hunt- ing activities and capitalist wage-labor, saying that the one producesa lighteningand lifting ofthebodywhilethe other producesanxiety and despair. Indeed, someconser- vativemembersoftheNorthernTerritory andfederal governmentshaverepresentedcontemporary Aboriginal hunting and gatheringactivitiesasleisureactivitiesin order to undermine land claims based on economicneed. BecauseAboriginal peopleno longer needthe"bits and scraps" of foodthat theycollectfrom the bush, the argu- mentgoes,their huntingactivitiesare essentiallynodif- ferent from thoseof non-Aboriginal campers.16Therefore Aboriginal groupsshouldnotbegiven specialrights de- niedto non-Aboriginalsportsmen.However,women knowthat the productiveeffectof their leisurely labor is verydifferentfromthatofmost non-Aboriginal Austra- lians.Thisproductivedifferenceliesinthewaytheir leisureproducesboth life-enabling knowledgeaboutthe countrysideandtheabundancyor scarcityofthefoods and materials found there. Whether or nota personactually hunts,gathers,or fishesonabushtrip, heorsheislikelyto gain various levelsofuseful knowledge,suchaswhatsitesarerich withfoodsand whatsitesare dangerousduetocurrent Dreamingorsocialconflicts.The followingtwocases provideeverydayexamplesof whatonecan getoutof a trip by justcomingalong for the ride. Case 6: Binbinyaand the Salmon Run(March9,1989) Twelve adults and about the same number of children from twoBelyuenfamiliestraveled to an estuarinecreek onthewestcoastoftheCoxPeninsula. During thehalf hour beforethe tidecamein, fiveof our group wentinto the mangrove tocollectcrab and shellfish. Afterward we movedtothecreekandsevenofus(thesamefiveplus twoothers)began fishing. For reasons my mother (BBM) attributed to the cold weather, salmon ran in large schools upthecreek.Our partycaughtten,plusanumberof smallerred snapper,brim,andcatfish. Throughoutthe day severalmembersof our group sat near a fire wehad made, drank tea, played buta (a local card game),and ate fishothershad caught and bread others had brought. 514AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST*VOL. 97,NO. 3*SEPTEMBER1995 Case 7: The Gandu(January29,1989) On the way to TwofellowCreek, an aunt of mine (DA) pointedouttheplacewhereherdaughter sawagandu mungul. DA describedhim as wearing red hair made from a horse'smane. My grandmother (djemele)added that he had teethwrapped around his face like a bridle. Others in the truck asked a quick seriesof questions: Where exactly had hestood?Howbig washe(tall or short)?Did helie downin thegrassor standstraight up and still? In what truck wasDA's daughter? Both of theseworksof leisure significantly influence womenand mentogoon bush trips (or, for that matter, tostay at home),evenif theyhave no particular interest in hunting, fishing, or collecting. In Case 6, many members of the Binbinya foraging group did little by way of caloric production. Instead they ate up fuel and whateverelse we found or had brought (tea, bread, sugar, and corned beef). But theyleftwithmorethana full belly.Asothershave noted(Cashdan 1990 and Winterhalder 1987), being there providedthemwithknowledgeoftherichnessoffood patches,of their changing productivity, and of techniques for exploitingresourcesthat willbeusefultothemover time. In short, leisure producesknowledgethat will have important long-term consequencesonthematerial basis ofBelyuensociallife.In Case7, everyoneonthetruck whoheard theGandu storylearneda number ofcritical waysof differentiating strange men from ordinary strang- ers:redhorse'shair,teethnecklaces,andgrassbeds. Moreover,theylearnedwherethe strangerhadbeen sightedand whohe had beenlooking for ("In what truck wasDA's daughter?"), and thereforewhat placetoavoid and what kin group to warn. Thus even if personscoming alongfortheridedidnotleavewithafullstomachor ecological-technologicalknowledge,theyleftwithlife- enhancingknowledge. But a morecritical workof leisure,especiallyin the contextof this essay,becomesapparent whensituated in the framework of subjectiveintentionality and appropria- tion. No matter the material usefulnessof knowledge, just being there becomesproductiveonceour analysis is situ- atedwithina perspectiveof a sentientenvironment.For instance,some Dreamings inthecountrysidedepend upon the presenceof thehuman body in order to instan- tiatethemselves (maroi,orconceptionDreamings, for instance),whetheror not that body is hunting, fishing, or collecting.This doesnot mean that personswill not have aconceptionDreamingunlesstheymove throughthe countryside, but rather that the restriction on their mobil- ityhasaneffectonthespatialityofmaroiexpression. Policythat restricts Aborigines ontosmall settlementsor communityareasthreatenstoconstricttherange ofcer- tain Dreamings (but seePovinelli 1993a:165-166), which thenpotentiallynarrows Aborigines'affectiveand jural attachmentstoplaces.Thus, justtravelingthroughthe country allowsthe maroi to expressitselfthroughout the regionandallowshumanstoformattachmentstothis broaderregion.Notonlydoesbeing thereallowcertain human-Dreamingsinterlocutorstofunctionmostfully, but justbeingtherecancriticallyaffecttheproductivity of the surrounding landscape.Becausethe by-products of humanlabor-sweatand speech-areseentoinfluence stronglytheproductivityofthecountrysidebyaffecting thedispositionof the Dreaming, the presenceor absence of local peoplecan directly affect the plenitudeor scarcity of the foodsthey hope to collect.The familiar soundsand smellsoflocalpeoplepleaseandcalmthecountryside, creatingwithinitan abidingaffectionforthesesame peopleand a willingnessto provide the foods,goods,and signstheyare seeking. Insum,iflandandhumansare interlocutorysubjects,thenleisureisa labor with social and economicvalue. The Drawof Political Economy in FourthWorld Studies Let usreturn to thecourtroomonelasttimeand to thewaysin which Aboriginal beliefsabout thenature of labor action and the human-environmental encounterare assessed.Thesplitmannerinwhichthelaw(andthe publicdebateabout the law)appraisesAboriginal belief cannotbe overemphasized,and neither can the problems thisappraisal posesfor political-economicanthropology. Currently theassessmentof Belyuen practiceis basedin the first instanceon a litmus of cultural traditionality and then,after passingthis test,on a comparativeevaluation of the material needs of the Aboriginal community and the economiceffectof a land grant on the widercommunity. Note,however,that evenwhenan Aboriginal community isthewidercommunity,anevenwider non-Aboriginal community can be found (the region, the nation, the trad- ingbloc)whoseinterestsineconomictermswillbe greater. Onthe one hand, then, we have belief as a diacritic ofauthenticmulticulturalism (theinteriorityofcultural difference); andontheotherhand,wehaveeconomic statistics,manipulatable, yes,but still some gauge of cold economic reality (theexteriorityof theeconomyand its material resources). While beliefand value-ormoreexactly,divergent epistemologiesand thesocioeconomicand legal appara- tusesthat support them-areat the heart of theconflict, Westerneconomyand its epistemologieshavebeenmi- raculously separated from the discussion.Western beliefs are not on the examining table. Instead, land conflictsare framedasthenecessarycompromisesthatneedtobe madeasthenation-statetriestobalancetolerancefor multiculturalperspectiveswiththenecessitiesofeco- nomicdevelopment. AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR/ELIZABETH A.POVINELLI515 Given this political-legalcontext,what are the poten- tialsandlimitsofapolitical-economicapproachtothe studyofthefourthworld,oranyworldinwhichlabor actionand subjectivityare differently perceived?By po- litical-economic anthropology I meanthoseapproaches thatexaminedominationandsubordinationintermsof thecontrol of material relationsof productionand repre- sentation.Thus, under politicaleconomyI am including a fairly wide-ranging and eclecticbodyof work. Clearly political-economicapproachestoissuesof domination and subordination hold out much to an analy- sisof thefourth world. Building insomewayon Marx's theory of labor and resourceexploitation,anthropologists andothersocialscientistsseepoliticaleconomy(and formsof structural marxism) as offering a revolutionary framework for understanding and representing the devas- tatingeffectsofworldcapitalismonadiversesetof non-Western societies.While political-economicanalyses of social changehave beenheavy-handedin many cases, a political-economicframeworkhasallowedscholarsto seeacommonpatterntolocalsocialtransformations whichconnects,inaverycompellingway,theplightof Kung womenwith that of South American miners, Suma- tran and Italian peasants,and Caribbean cane-workers.17 In addition, political-economicconceptionsofthecause ofthematerial conditionsofthepooranddispossessed strongly contrast with dominant economic paradigms like rationalchoice,maximizationtheory,gametheory,and otherneoconservativemodelsfor analyzingmicro-and macroeconomicsthatlocatethecauseof povertyin the practicesof the poorand dispossessedthemselves. Scholarsofthefourthworldhavedrawnontwo trends in political economyto situate historically contem- porarybushmencamps,especiallytoexplainwhy, throughout the world,they"literally smell [of] death and decay" (Gordon 1992:2;seealso Trigger 1992). In an effort toexplainthesematerial conditions,manyofushave turnedto,ontheonehand,ananalysisofthematerial relationsofproductionthatexistbetween indigenous communitiesand the larger nation-state and, on the other, thediscursive regimesthat constitute indigenouspeople as premodemsocieties,thereby undermining their politi- calandeconomicaspirations(Schrire1984).Byrepre- sentingthe economic dependencyand hardship wrought by national policiesfor and academicrepresentationsof indigenouspeoples,this wide-ranging workhas playeda criticalrolein the strugglefor indigenousciviland land rights. What then is the problem? While political-economictheory has aided in unpack- ing thematerial and socialrelationsofstatedomination andexploitationoffourth-worldcommunities(insome cases showing that the subsistencemodeof production is produced,rather than simply exploited,by global capital- ism), ithasdonelittletooverturnthebasictenetsof Western notionsabout thequalitative divides among hu- mans (subjects-agents),nonintentionalanimals (preda- tors-prey), and objects(insentient things)or, where some effort has beenmade to do so, the division betweenbelief and fact reemergesin the policy portion of papers. Having arisen from the long duree of the socialsciences'effort to definethedifferencebetweenhuman and nonhuman na- ture and betweencultureand materiality, politicalecon- omyremainssolidlywithinhegemonicnotionsofthe defining criteria of human subjectivity and object nature. Thus thekind ofradical rethinking that Belyuennotions oflaborandsubjectivityposetotheanalysisoflabor action and the environment is unthinkable within political economy.We can certainly discusslocal beliefsbut these are alwaysgroundedin the actual material conditionsof the communityandthematerialrelationsbetweenthe communityand the larger nationaland international or- der. Becausepolitical-economicapproachesstillprivi- legeWesternformsof assessment,areevaluationof hunter-gatherer subjectivity has done little to increase the worthof hunter-gatherer productivityinacomparative economicframework.In an increasinglyheateddiscus- sionof globalenvironmental change, populationgrowth, and limited resources,scienceand economics-andthose otherdisciplinesthatincorporatetheirempiricalmeth- ods-areturned toas dispassionateobserversof thefac- tual nature of human-environment relationsand theeco- nomicand ecologicalrisksand benefitsassociatedwith developmentprojects.Becauseof this,most contempo- rarylandclaimsinclude supplementalreportsonthe economicbenefitsof them to the indigenouscommunity, onthe developmentprospectsoftheareaforlocaland regionalgovernments,and ontheenvironmentalconse- quencesof maintainingor developingtheareaSocial scienceprojects with a humanistic,theoretical,or activist bent are sometimesenlistedto examine the"soft side" of thesediscussions:howlocal peoplewill experienceeco- nomic change, how the government or a nongovernmental organization might softenthe impactof developmenton alocal community.Buttheevaluativeapparatusofna- tionalorinternationaleconomic policyhasbeenlittle influencedby non-Western understandings of human-en- vironmentalrelations.Until itis,indigenousgroupswill alwayslosethe war of need.Some wider perspectivewill alwaysbe generated that puts their lives"in context." Thusas anthropologists,wemustbecarefulnotto be,as wasonce widelydiscussed,objectiveneutral play- ers in theseglobal disputes,but to becareful, self-reflec- tiveplayers.'8 We needtobe especiallyon guard for the ways in which the state and the international businessand financialcommunitiescandraw on our rhetoric toreen- trenchtheirown interests,muchastheNew Right has recentlybegun to draw on Gramscian notionsofcultural hegemonyinordertodemonstratetheimportanceofa culture war by the right. 516AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST.VOL. 97,NO. 3.SEPTEMBER1995 2.Some of the historical context to the emergence of land rightslegislationis touched on in Peterson 1988.For a general discussionof the Mabodecision and the NativeTitle Bill see the specialissue of the Sydney Law Review 15(2) (1993). 3.Belyuen women usethe phrase "went underground" to refer to, among other things, what happenswhen a Dreaming withdrawsfromthe phenomenologicalworldbecause of human (usually mis-)behavior (see Povinelli 1993a:155). 4.See Baudrillard1975;Goux 1990;and Fitzpatrick1992. 5.New Zealand,Canada,Norway,and the UnitedStates pre- sent similarcases. 6.Handler1988;Sider 1986;and P. Williams1991. 7. And, itshould benoted, it isthe key means by which internationalstandardsof human rightsare applied (An-Na'im 1992;Pollis and Schwab 1979;and Renteln1990). 8.Not surprisingly,works arguingthatSangroupsare dispos- sessed pastoralists cite local people as supportingthis view, while those who view the San groupsas besieged huntersand gatherersquote local people as supportingtheir position. 9.Moreover,underminingintentionalityas that which drives or shapes humanaction throughrecourseto the imaginary,the unconscious, or fantasy would not change the yawning divide he posits betweenthe humanandthe nonhuman.In otherwords, psychoanalyticallyinformedmodels of humanlaborwould still falter over the uniquenessof humanpsychic-psychologicalac- tion (for example,see Marcuse 1966). 10. In the AboriginalLandRights (NorthernTerritory) Act of 1976, even ifthe land commissionerfinds for the traditional Aboriginalowners, he or she must commentand consider thedetriment topersons orcommunities including other Aboriginalgroupsthat mightresult if the claimwere acceded to eitherin whole or in part;the effect which accedingto the claim eitherin whole or in partwould have on the existing or proposedpatternsof land usage in the region;and where the claim relates to alienated Crownland, the cost of acquiring the interests of persons (other than the Crown) in the land concerned.[Neate 1989:18-19] 11. Law is increasinglyseen in narrativeand ethnographic terms (Jackson 1988;West 1993;and P. Williams1991). 12. I do not mean to differentiatewomen'sviews frommen's viewsin any absolute way. Because oftheir common lives, beliefs, and political-economicpredicaments,Belyuen women and men share certainbroadframeworksfor understandingthe effects of humanbodies on the Dreamingenvironment,even if they have somewhat separate ceremonialtexts and economic practices.And,at Belyuen,ways of conceptualizinghuman-land relationsvary as much between familygroupsas between gen- der groups.I use the phrase "Belyuenwomen's view"to desig- nate the social locus of my own understanding. 13. Kidney-fatting is a physical operationwhereby a clever- man makes an incision in a sleepingperson'sside removinghis or her kidney and replacingit with straw. The victim, unaware of the clever-man'sattack, slowly wastes away and eventually dies (see Elkin 1980). 14.See a relateddiscussionin Myers1988. 15. Merlan1986:475;see also Falkenberg1962and Hamilton 1982. For howeverliberal are the legal bowsto indigenous traditionsandknowledge,theyactuallyentrenchstate rights over indigenous communitiesusing the very models wegenerate. Stateauthorityoverindigenous communi- tiesisreestablishedevenasstateinstitutionsarerepre- sentedasacknowledging(or reconcilingthemselves to) indigenous traditions.Thissleight ofhandisachieved through court and legislative mandates that recognize the traditionalrights ofAboriginalpeopleandatthesame time give state institutionsthe right to sort contemporary Aboriginal socialandculturalpracticesintothetradi- tional (valuable) and the untraditional (valueless). Rather thanopposingAboriginal landrights, apositioneasily redeployed by Aboriginal activistsas oppressingAborigi- nal peopleand thus easilyinciting a human rights contro- versy,theAustraliangovernmentexpressessorrowfor the effectsof past European actionson Aboriginal people (although those Aboriginal groups who suffered most gain least) and supportsmulticulturalismintheformofAb- original traditions. But in themidst ofelaboratedisplays ofremorseand appealsforreconciliation,thestatehas managed tomaintain controloverwhatwillbethetest- able, factual basis for a claim, whosebeliefswill be evalu- atedfor theircultural authenticityandworth,and what will be the criteria of labor's evaluation.In no way has the non-Aboriginal Australian government or publicaltered itsunderstandingofthefactualgrounds ofwork,labor, humansubjectivity,orenvironmentalinsentience.In short, thestate producesaclassicBatesiandoublemes- sage.It tellsindigenouspersons,"Yourbeliefsare abso- lutely essentialto your economicwell-being; your beliefs makenorational senseintheassessmentofyoureco- nomicwell-being." Rather than challenging the factual grounds of state authority,thedebateinAustraliaovernativetitlehas repositionedthegovernment asthemiddleground be- tweenthe rabid right and the radical left, betweenconser- vative public analysts and cultural pundits who argue that recognizingnativetitlehasplunged"property lawinto chaos and 'given substance' to the ambitions of Australian communists and the Bolshevikleft" and radical Aboriginal groups and activistswhowouldchallengerationality it- self-thevaluesandprinciplesuponwhichthemodern nation-staterests.19 Notes Acknowledgments.I would like to thank SandraBernand the twoanonymousreviewersfromtheAmericanAnthropologist for their insightfulcomments on the form and content of this essay. 1. The KenbiLandClaimis an Aboriginalland claim for the Cox Peninsula,PortPaterson,andBynoeHarbourregion,North- emnTerritoryAustralia(see Brandlet al. 1979). AUSTRALIANABORIGINALLABOR/ELIZABETHA.POVINELLI 517 16. Belyuen Aborigines'hunting,fishing, and collecting ac- tivities actually contributesignificantlyto their dietary needs (see Povinelli 1993aand Coombs et al. 1983). 17. Thus, this search for a common unity, and throughthis unity a common answer to the diverse humanexperiences of labor and resource exploitation,seems more rooted in univer- salist than relativistictendencies in anthropologicaltheory (see Geertz1973;Sahlins 1976;and Roseberry1991). 18. Arturo Escobar's (1995) examination ofdevelopment rhetoric in the third world seems tocomplementthis essay's argument. 19. HughMorgan,The Australian, 13 October1992. References Cited An-Na'im,AbdullahiAhmed,ed. 1992HumanRightsin Cross-CulturalPerspectives.Philadel- phia:Universityof PennsylvaniaPress. Baudrillard,Jean 1975The Mirrorof Production.St. Louis:Telos Press. Bauman,Richard 1986 Stowy, Performanceand Event. Cambridge:Cambridge UniversityPress. 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