1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910132649803321

Autore

Burke Paul <1956->

Titolo

Law's anthropology : from ethnography to expert testimony in native title / / Paul Burke

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Acton, A.C.T. : , : ANU E Press, , [2011]

©2011

ISBN

1-921862-42-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (336 pages) : digital file(s)

Classificazione

347.9625

Disciplina

346.9404320899915

Soggetti

Evidence, Expert - Australia

Forensic anthropology - Australia

Aboriginal Australians - Legal status, laws, etc

Native title (Australia)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-319) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary; Acknowledgments; Lists of Maps, Tables and Figures; 1. Towards an Ethnography of Anthropology's Encounter with Modern Law; 2. Anthropological Knowledge of the Murray Islands Prior to the Mabo Case; 3. Beckett in Mabo; 4. The Anthropology of the Broome Region; 5. The Anthropology of Broome on Trial; 6. The Enigma of Traditional Western Desert Land Tenure; 7. Western Desert Ethnography on Trial; 8. Apocalypse Yulara? The emergence of a judicial discourse of 'junk' anthropology; 9. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Anthropologists have been appearing as key expert witnesses in native title claims for over 20 years. Until now, however, there has been no theoretically-informed, detailed investigation of how the expert testimony of anthropologists is formed and how it is received by judges. This book examines the structure and habitus of both the field of anthropology and the juridical field and how they have interacted in four cases, including the original hearing in the Mabo case. The analysis of background material has been supplemented by interviews with the key protagonists in each case. This allows the reader a unique, insider's perspective of the courtroom drama that unfolds in each case. The book asks, given the available ethnographic research, how will the



anthropologist reconstruct it in a way that is relevant to the legal doctrine of native title when that doctrine gives a wide leeway for interpretation on the critical questions.