Ethnographer and Contrarian

Peter Sutton has been at various times, and sometimes simultaneously, a museum-based anthropologist with a foundational role in raising the profile of Australian Indigenous art, an anthropologist and linguist who has made significant ethnographic, analytical and theoretical contributions to both fields, and to the intersection between them, an expert on native title, and a public intellectual.

In Ethnographer and Contrarian Sutton's colleagues reflect on aspects of his life and work. The book begins with a set of biographical essays that provide an overview of Peter's life and career, including a fascinating account of his early years.

The second section focuses on his debate-changing and controversial book The Politics of Suffering. The essays reflect on the reactions to its original publication, or on its resonances with contributors' own experiences in the field.

The third set of essays address Sutton's ground-breaking analysis of social change and of the transition between 'classical' and 'post-classical' social formations in Aboriginal Australia, and the emergence of 'families of polity'. The volume concludes with a complete bibliography of Sutton's published works.

Edited by Julie D. Finlayson and Frances Morphy
Contributors: Nicolas Rothwell, Julie Finlayson, Francesca Merlan, J. Chris Anderson, John Morton, Gaynor Macdonald, Suzanne Ingram, David F. Martin, David Trigger, Nicolas, Peterson, Jeffrey Stead, Mary Laughren, Robert Graham, Ian Keen, Deane Fergie, Rod Lucas, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel, Philip Jones

Julie D. Finlayson is a social anthropologist driven by a passionate belief in, and history of applied work in Indigenous Australia. This has led to work in native title, community development, Indigenous cultural tourism and adventures as a DJ for an Indigenous community radio station. She has also worked in various Indigenous program areas in the Australian Public Service. Julie is a past president of the Australian Anthropological Society. In recent years she has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Native Title Anthropology at the Australian National University, where she facilitates professional development activities, workshops and conferences for anthropologists working in native title. Frances Morphy is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. In her working life she has moved between academia and publishing, having been a commissioning editor at Oxford University Press, Oxford in the 1970s and 1980s. Her academic background is in anthropology and linguistics, and she was an expert witness in the Blue Mud Bay native title-land rights case (Gawirrin Gumana v Northern Territory of Australia (No. 2) [2005]). With Bill Arthur, she is general editor of the Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (2005; 2nd edn 2019).

Peter Sutton has been at various times, and sometimes simultaneously, a museum-based anthropologist with a foundational role in raising the profile of Australian Indigenous art, an anthropologist and linguist who has made significant ethnographic, analytical and theoretical contributions to both fields, and to the intersection between them, an expert on native title, and a public intellectual. In Ethnographer and Contrarian Sutton's colleagues reflect on aspects of his life and work. The book begins with a set of biographical essays that provide an overview of Peter's life and career, including a fascinating account of his early years. The second section focuses on his debate-changing and controversial book The Politics of Suffering. The essays reflect on the reactions to its original publication, or on its resonances with contributors' own experiences in the field. The third set of essays address Sutton's ground-breaking analysis of social change and of the transition between 'classical' and 'post-classical' social formations in Aboriginal Australia, and the emergence of 'families of polity'. The volume concludes with a complete bibliography of Sutton's published works. Edited by Julie D. Finlayson and Frances Morphy Contributors: Nicolas Rothwell, Julie Finlayson, Francesca Merlan, J. Chris Anderson, John Morton, Gaynor Macdonald, Suzanne Ingram, David F. Martin, David Trigger, Nicolas, Peterson, Jeffrey Stead, Mary Laughren, Robert Graham, Ian Keen, Deane Fergie, Rod Lucas, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel, Philip Jones

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