Greetings

Ethno-ornithologists may be interested in the following new book:

John Bradley, Miles Holmes, Dinah Norman Marrngawi, Annie Isaac
Karrakayn, Jemima Miller Wuwarlu & Ida Ninganga 2006,
_Yumbulyumbulmantha ki-Awarawu All Kinds of Things from Country:
Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification_, (Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Studies Unit,Research Report Series Vol 6), St
Lucia, University of Queensland (ISBN 1-86499-826-1), 174 pages,
illustrated.

I don't know the price, but it can be ordered from the publishers on
the web at: www.atsis.uq.edu.au

The Yanyuwa are an Aboriginal people of the maritime environment of
the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north of Australia. The book is the
outcome of collaborative work between anthropologists and Yanyuwa
elders. Bradley has been working with Yanyuwa since the 1980s, and
with the passing of many older Yanyuwa is now one of the few
remaining fluent speakers of the Yanyuwa language.

The book provides a fascinating Yanyuwa perspective on their natural
environment, with particular focus on their classification of plants
and animals. Birds, of course, figure prominently in this account.

Bradley and Miles develop a theoretical perspective from the Yanyuwa
materials that argues for classification being a contextual act
based on diverse factors, including age, authority, utility,
kinship, ecology, aesthetics, ownership of knowledge, and religion.

Chris Healey
(Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University)