{"product_id":"torres-strait-islanders-jeremy-beckett-9780521378628","title":"Torres Strait Islanders: Custom and Colonialism","description":"The Torres Strait Islanders are Australia's 'other' indigenous minority. Their experience of colonialism and reaction to their position in Australian society provides a striking counterpoint to that of the Aborigines. The author applies many years of study and work among the Torres Strait Islanders to provide a new account of their changing world in the islands and their changing role in Australia.\u003cp\u003eA Melanesian people, the Torres Strait Islanders' cultural affinities originally lay with the Papuans to the north rather than the Aborigines to the south. But by the logic of European colonialism, they were made a part of the State of Queensland. The pearling industry has exploited their labour, but left them in occupation of their islands. The Queensland government has allowed them a degree of autonomy in local affairs which many would contrast with its approach to Aborigines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Torres Strait Islanders have thus had the space in which to develop a rich and vital way of life that they still call 'island custom', which has, however, changed from that described in the classic anthropological research begun by A. C. Haddon just a hundred years ago. This provided the starting point for Dr Beckett, who has studied and worked with Torres Strait Islanders since the 1950s, and this book links the personal experience of the author, the professional insights of the anthropologist, and the perceptions of past and present held by the Islanders themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author has examined the move to the mainland of many Islanders searching for new opportunities, but re-creating island custom in the new setting. He demonstrates in this book the attempts of the Islanders to win a more favourable place inAustralian society, challenging European authority. The book examines colonialism in its various manifestations, and the ways, political and cultural, in which the colonized mediate its effects. Through the concept of 'welfare colonialism' Islander affairs are located in\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jeremy Beckett\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0521378621\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780521378628\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cambridge University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/26\/1990\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 268\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.78lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.53h x 5.52w x 0.69d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jeremy Beckett","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46640561225983,"sku":"9780521378628","price":41.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_c17d0694-679a-485e-ae68-0a4d305cd7e8.jpg?v=1740669954","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/torres-strait-islanders-jeremy-beckett-9780521378628","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}