Singing Subjects and Sacred Objects: More on Munn's ‘Transformation of Subjects Into Objects’ in Central Australian Myth

Abstract

Nancy Munn's ‘The Transformation of Subjects into Objects in Walbiri and Pitjantjatjara Myth’ is a landmark in our understanding of the processes by which the Aboriginal world is created and sustained. Her paper is summarised and then related to similar concerns extant among the neighbouring Aranda. Munn's account of relationships between people and country is shown to be part of a wider reality encompassing all stages of the life‐cycle and characterised by a triple dialectic between ‘surface’ and ‘depth‘, between male and female, and between life and death. The study is preliminary to a psychological account of these dialectical processes to be published at a later date.

Ancestors, magic, and exchange in Yolngu doctrines: extensions of the person in time and space

“…4 4 Morton (1987) has extended Munn's analysis, adding a psychoanalytical perspective to look at Arrernte initiation. He argues that Arrernte individuals experienced more creative autonomy than did the people of Munn's account, and Redmond (2001 a ) concurs in relation to Ngarinyin relations with totemic ancestors, which are reciprocal. …”

The Aranda’s Pepa : An introduction to Carl Strehlow’s Masterpiece Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien (1907-1920)

“…He did not have the opportunity to travel with his informants over their country. Nevertheless his work and data were suggestive of the 'subject into object' transformation (Munn 1970;Morton 1987) and to a certain degree the person-land relationship in indigenous Australian cultures (Strehlow 1947;Myers [1986Myers [ ] 1991. It would certainly help his son conceptualise and articulate it.…”

“…In his work post-1985, Morton, like Munn, carried the study of myth into an analysis of how (male) agents filled with desire created a libidinised landscape (Morton 1985(Morton , 1987. In Singing Subjects and Sacred Objects he develops the theme of mythic 'procreation' events as the substance of ancestral travels (1987: 100-117).…”

“…Recent interests in a contemporary phenomenology, or social phenomenology, have redeemed T.G.H. Strehlow's work for an interested audience (see, for instance, Myers [1986Myers [ ] 1991Morton 1987;Redmond 2001;Musharbash 2008;Austin-Broos 2009). …”

“…He even wrote to his editor that it was unlawful to change or damage natural features of the landscape. 27 But he did not get to the specific subject-into-object ontology as described by Munn (1970), expanded by Myers ([1986Myers ([ ] 1991 and elaborated by Morton (1987) and Redmond (2001). Still, he came close:…”