1 - Rationing the Inexplicable
from PART ONE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2009
Summary
‘A gift is indeed both a thing and a kind of act…’
From ‘ingratitude’ to uncertainty
In his last book on Central Australia, Wanderings in Wild Australia, W. Baldwin Spencer made the following observations about Central Australian Aborigines' apparent lack of gratitude:
It is certainly true that he is not in the habit of showing excessive gratitude on receiving gifts from the white man, but then neither does he think it necessary to express his gratitude when he receives gifts from members of his own tribe, nor does he expect an expression of gratitude when he gives anything away … He simply treats the white man as he would a fellow-tribesman.
Note an important assumption in this exonerating account: the flow of goods from whites to blacks can be likened to the flow of goods among Aboriginal people themselves. Goods which pass from one person to another, regardless of the culture of the person, are referred to as ‘gifts’. Assuming the sameness of transactions, Spencer suggested that whites who give are like fellow-tribesmen. It was not that Indigenous people were lacking in gratitude. Spencer's use of the term ‘gift’ allowed him a more positive view. If gifts from white to black and gifts from black to black are treated in similar (‘ungrateful’) fashion, can we not infer that Indigenous people see the giving white man as a kind of fellow tribesman? Indigenous recipients treat all donors in the same fashion.
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- White Flour, White PowerFrom Rations to Citizenship in Central Australia, pp. 13 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998