Book contents
- Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Interrogating the Alterity of Hunter-Gatherers in Bioarchaeological Context: Adaptability, Transformability, and Resilience of Hunter-Gatherers in the Past
- 2 Regional Continuity and Local Challenges to Resilience among Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Greater Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
- 3 Hunter-Gatherer Persistence and Demography in Patagonia (Southern South America): The Impact of Ecological Changes during the Pleistocene and Holocene
- 4 The Success and Failure of Resilience in the European Mesolithic
- 5 Persistence of Time: Resilience and Adaptability in Prehistoric Jomon Hunter-Gatherers from the Inland Sea Region of Southwestern Honshu, Japan
- 6 Biomechanics, Habitual Activity, and Resilience among Southern African Hunter-Gatherers and Herders
- 7 Biocultural Adaptation and Resilience in the Hunter-Gatherers of Lagoa Santa, Central-Eastern Brazil
- 8 Resilience among Hunter-Gatherers in Southern California before and after European Colonization: A Bioarchaeological Perspective
- 9 Persistence or Pastoralism: The Challenges of Studying Hunter-Gatherer Resilience in Africa
- 10 Ancient Mortuary Ritual and Cultural Resilience on the Northwest Coast of North America
- 11 Bioarchaeological Evidence for Cultural Resilience at Point Hope, Alaska: Persistence and Memory in the Ontology of Personhood in Northern Hunter-Gatherers
- 12 Biocultural Perspectives on Interpersonal Violence in the Prehistoric San Francisco Bay Area
- 13 The Discovery and Rapid Demise of the Sadlermiut
- 14 When Resilience Fails: Fences, Water Control, and Aboriginal History in the Western Riverina, Australia
- 15 Models, Metaphors, and Measures
- Index
- References
14 - When Resilience Fails: Fences, Water Control, and Aboriginal History in the Western Riverina, Australia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2018
Book contents
- Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Interrogating the Alterity of Hunter-Gatherers in Bioarchaeological Context: Adaptability, Transformability, and Resilience of Hunter-Gatherers in the Past
- 2 Regional Continuity and Local Challenges to Resilience among Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Greater Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
- 3 Hunter-Gatherer Persistence and Demography in Patagonia (Southern South America): The Impact of Ecological Changes during the Pleistocene and Holocene
- 4 The Success and Failure of Resilience in the European Mesolithic
- 5 Persistence of Time: Resilience and Adaptability in Prehistoric Jomon Hunter-Gatherers from the Inland Sea Region of Southwestern Honshu, Japan
- 6 Biomechanics, Habitual Activity, and Resilience among Southern African Hunter-Gatherers and Herders
- 7 Biocultural Adaptation and Resilience in the Hunter-Gatherers of Lagoa Santa, Central-Eastern Brazil
- 8 Resilience among Hunter-Gatherers in Southern California before and after European Colonization: A Bioarchaeological Perspective
- 9 Persistence or Pastoralism: The Challenges of Studying Hunter-Gatherer Resilience in Africa
- 10 Ancient Mortuary Ritual and Cultural Resilience on the Northwest Coast of North America
- 11 Bioarchaeological Evidence for Cultural Resilience at Point Hope, Alaska: Persistence and Memory in the Ontology of Personhood in Northern Hunter-Gatherers
- 12 Biocultural Perspectives on Interpersonal Violence in the Prehistoric San Francisco Bay Area
- 13 The Discovery and Rapid Demise of the Sadlermiut
- 14 When Resilience Fails: Fences, Water Control, and Aboriginal History in the Western Riverina, Australia
- 15 Models, Metaphors, and Measures
- Index
- References
Summary
The impact of European contact upon Australian indigenous populations is well-documented and modelled with ongoing studies of settler violence, the sources of introduced disease, and pre-contact population sizes. Much attention is focussed upon the shifts in life style, health and demography for Aboriginal people that derived from European contact. However in the early years of contact in frontier regions it is difficult to find evidence of the process of change and the agency of Aboriginal people in negotiating that period. The social, ecological and demographic resilience of Aboriginal people before European contact is attested in Australia’s variable environment but is there a point at which resilience breaks down and collapse is inevitable? In this paper, I approach this issue by focussing on detailed information for the western Riverina to argue that it is not until a sequence of changes unfolded in socioeconomic relations that the absolute deterioration of Aboriginal health was observed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and ResilienceA Bioarchaeological Perspective, pp. 328 - 353Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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