In NTT JTSR’s series on Key Texts, W.E.H. Stanner’s On Aboriginal Religion (1959-1963) cannot be missed. It is a crucial text in the study of religion that merits renewed attention. The text concerns the Murinbata (now: Murrinh-patha) of north Australia. The Murinbata consider life, according to Stanner, “A joyful thing with maggots at the centre.” Stanner’s text on Aboriginal religion forms the main part of his exploration of Aboriginal High Culture. He offers a fundamental critique of Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life and argues that Aboriginal religion has to be studied in its own right. Stanner uses the word “everywhen” to capture the Aboriginal worldview, the Dreamtime.
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