ABSTRACT

Using a surviving record from AD 1856/7, we analyse the distribution of Aboriginal burial monuments along the Murray River, Australia recorded by Gerard Krefft and William Blandowski. Their detailed record enables us to recreate a necrogeography along the river. The regional perspective this provides demonstrates both broad traditions and clinal shifts that serve to identify zones of diversity and interaction. These zones of practice were recognized by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who reacted to them in structured ways that recognized the temporality of the sites and sequences. Since 1857, the above-ground architecture of these monuments has disappeared; however, they continue to exist as burial mounds or eroded features where single or multiple Aboriginal burials are apparent. While memory of the original burial architecture has faded, the remnants have re-emerged in the recent past as key places within debates about colonialism and genocide. We argue that within this changing necrogeography, the dead have an effective agency, one that is partial, complex and the result of an interaction between the specific perceptions of the viewer and the dead themselves.

摘要

利用公元1856/7年的幸存记录，我们分析了Gerard Krefft和William Blandowski记录的澳大利亚墨累河沿岸原住民墓葬的分布。他们的详细记录使我们能够重建沿河的墓地。所提供的区域视角展示了广泛的传统和渐进式的转变，它们有助于确定多样性和互动性区域。这些实践领域得到了原住民和非原住民的认可，他们以结构化的方式对它们做出反应，从而认识到了地点和序列的时空性。自1857年以来，这些古迹的地上建筑已不复存在。但是，它们继续以墓葬土堆或侵蚀特征存在，其中单个或多个原住民墓葬显而易见。当原始墓葬建筑的记忆消失时，在最近关于殖民主义和种族灭绝的辩论中，残迹重新出现。我们认为，在这种变化的死灵地理学中，死者拥有一种有效的机构，这种机构是局部的，复杂的，是观看者的特定感知与死者自身之间相互作用的结果。