The Politics of Ritual in an Aboriginal Settlement: Kinship, Gender, and the Currency of Knowledge

The Warlpiri of the Central Australian Desert maintain links to each other and to their lands in ritual performances that recreate the Dreaming itineraries of Ancestral Beings, such as Fire, Water, the Honey Ant, or the Emu. Each Warlpiri "owns" at least one Dreaming, but the performances of Dreaming stories are generally overseen by ritual leaders who ensure their proper reenactment. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork at the Yuendumu settlement, Françoise Dussart shows how female ritual leaders transcend the rigid physical divisions that separate them from their male counterparts and how they function simultaneously as individuals, as women, as Warlpiri, and as members of residential kin groups.