David H. Turner
Encyclopedia
David Howe Turner is a professor of Anthropology
at the University of Toronto
, and a Fellow at Trinity College
and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
. He has worked with Indigenous Australians
(Australian Aborigines) since 1969 and has worked with indigenous peoples
in Bali
, North India
, Japan
, and Canada
. At U of T, his main area of focus is comparative religion
and the role of music
in the indigenous societies of Australia
, North America
, Africa
, and India.
While conducting his Ph.D at the University of Western Australia
, Turner began his fieldwork with the people of Groote Eylandt
, in order to better understand Aboriginal social organization and symbol
ism. Since then, he has challenged common notions of hunter-gatherer
social and spiritual life and sought to bring a deeper understanding of the Australian Aboriginal way of life to the modern world. Indeed, in 1986, after undergoing the second stage of initiation
by the Aboriginal people of Groote Eylandt, he was told by his hosts to go back out into the modern world and show its people another way of life, so that they might live more harmoniously with others. Turner was encouraged to become a missionary of sorts, a representative of the Aboriginal world.
people, have a highly sophisticated society and worldview which is many ways more advanced than those of modern Western Civilization
. According to Turner, the Aborigines have developed several social mechanisms for ensuring social and environmental harmony that run quite contrary to conventional Western thinking. In particular, rather than formulate their society around notions of personal or national autonomy and property, they favour a philosophy of mutual dependence. It is this mutual dependence, or interdependence, which ensures peaceful coexistence.
This is no more explicit than in the Aboriginal practice of renunciation,which resembles reciprocal altruism
but runs much deeper. Rather than reciprocal trading of resources, or sharing them by giving a portion of what one has to another, the Aborigines give everything of what they have to whoever needs it, as codified by the statement: "You have nothing, everything I have is yours; I have nothing, everything you have is mine."
Likewise, the Aborigines practice renunciation in their allocation of property
. On Bickerton Island
, each group of people within Aboriginal society lives within a defined region of land, and each region contains one major resource (such as fresh water or a particular type of food). Rather than having exclusive access to their region's resource (as in conventional concepts of ownership
), the group is instead forbidden to consume it. In the Aboriginal world, such resources exist only to be freely given to members of neighbouring groups. Again, this is a method which makes self-sufficiency impossible, ensuring that neighbours must rely on each other and work to make their relations cooperative and peaceful.
However, it is important to realize that renunciation is not simply a concept or an economic theory, but a literal reenactment of creation as it is perceived by the Aborigines. For the Aborigines, physical and spiritual reality coexist, flowing in and out of each other in an endless process. Spiritual forms are always giving of themselves to make the world and the people in it. In such a world, it makes no sense to hold on to anything, because nothing is ever "yours" to begin with. So, an act of renunciation—even something as simple as giving food to a stranger who does not have any—is an action which reflects the fundamental nature of reality itself.
In Turner's view, rather than simply failing to develop modern technologies
, economics
, and ways of living, at some point in their extensive history (upwards of 130,000 years), the Aborigines made a conscious decision to turn toward more socially and spiritually meaningful pursuits. They turned away from technology, and toward each other. In doing so they eliminated poverty
, theft
, social class
es, and warfare, and lived in peace for possibly tens of thousands of years.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, and a Fellow at Trinity College
University of Trinity College
The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...
and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970...
. He has worked with Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
(Australian Aborigines) since 1969 and has worked with indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, North India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. At U of T, his main area of focus is comparative religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and the role of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
in the indigenous societies of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and India.
While conducting his Ph.D at the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
, Turner began his fieldwork with the people of Groote Eylandt
Groote Eylandt
Groote Eylandt is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northeastern Australia. It is the homeland of, and is owned by, the Anindilyakwa people who speak the isolated Anindilyakwa language)....
, in order to better understand Aboriginal social organization and symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism. Since then, he has challenged common notions of hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
social and spiritual life and sought to bring a deeper understanding of the Australian Aboriginal way of life to the modern world. Indeed, in 1986, after undergoing the second stage of initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
by the Aboriginal people of Groote Eylandt, he was told by his hosts to go back out into the modern world and show its people another way of life, so that they might live more harmoniously with others. Turner was encouraged to become a missionary of sorts, a representative of the Aboriginal world.
Turner's view of indigneous Australian society
The indigenous Australians, far from being a primitivePrimitive culture
In older anthropology texts and discussions, the term "primitive culture" is used to refer to a society that is believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication/development...
people, have a highly sophisticated society and worldview which is many ways more advanced than those of modern Western Civilization
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
. According to Turner, the Aborigines have developed several social mechanisms for ensuring social and environmental harmony that run quite contrary to conventional Western thinking. In particular, rather than formulate their society around notions of personal or national autonomy and property, they favour a philosophy of mutual dependence. It is this mutual dependence, or interdependence, which ensures peaceful coexistence.
This is no more explicit than in the Aboriginal practice of renunciation,which resembles reciprocal altruism
Reciprocal altruism
In evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time...
but runs much deeper. Rather than reciprocal trading of resources, or sharing them by giving a portion of what one has to another, the Aborigines give everything of what they have to whoever needs it, as codified by the statement: "You have nothing, everything I have is yours; I have nothing, everything you have is mine."
Likewise, the Aborigines practice renunciation in their allocation of property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
. On Bickerton Island
Bickerton Island
Bickerton Island is situated 13 km west off Groote Eylandt and 8 km east of the mouth of Blue Mud Bay in eastern Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is about 21 by 21 kilometers in size, with deep bays and indentations, and has an area of 215 km2. The largest bays...
, each group of people within Aboriginal society lives within a defined region of land, and each region contains one major resource (such as fresh water or a particular type of food). Rather than having exclusive access to their region's resource (as in conventional concepts of ownership
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...
), the group is instead forbidden to consume it. In the Aboriginal world, such resources exist only to be freely given to members of neighbouring groups. Again, this is a method which makes self-sufficiency impossible, ensuring that neighbours must rely on each other and work to make their relations cooperative and peaceful.
However, it is important to realize that renunciation is not simply a concept or an economic theory, but a literal reenactment of creation as it is perceived by the Aborigines. For the Aborigines, physical and spiritual reality coexist, flowing in and out of each other in an endless process. Spiritual forms are always giving of themselves to make the world and the people in it. In such a world, it makes no sense to hold on to anything, because nothing is ever "yours" to begin with. So, an act of renunciation—even something as simple as giving food to a stranger who does not have any—is an action which reflects the fundamental nature of reality itself.
In Turner's view, rather than simply failing to develop modern technologies
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, and ways of living, at some point in their extensive history (upwards of 130,000 years), the Aborigines made a conscious decision to turn toward more socially and spiritually meaningful pursuits. They turned away from technology, and toward each other. In doing so they eliminated poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
es, and warfare, and lived in peace for possibly tens of thousands of years.
Books
- Turner, David H. 1974. Tradition and transformation: a study of the Groote Eylandt area aborigines of northern Australia. Australian aboriginal studies, no. 53. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
- Turner, David H. 1977. The concept of kinship: some qualifications based on a re-examination of the Australian data. Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
- Turner, David H. 1977. Ideologues of band society: Nambir̄ir̄ma and Wee-sa-kay-jac. Toronto: Victoria University.
- Turner, David H., and Paul Wertman. 1977 Shamattawa: The Structure of Social Relations in a Northern Algonkian Band. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
- Turner, David H. 1978. Dialectics in tradition: myth and social structure in two hunter-gatherer societies. London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Turner, David H., and Gavin A. Smith. 1979. Challenging anthropology: a critical introduction to social and cultural anthropology. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. (with G. Smith).
- Turner, David H. 1980. Leiden anthropology and the reinterpretation of Australian Aboriginal social organization. Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijk Institut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
- Turner, David H. 1981. Australian aboriginal social organization. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press.
- Turner, David H. 1985. Life before Genesis, a conclusion: an understanding of the significance of Australian Aboriginal culture. Toronto studies in religion, vol. 1. New York: Peter Lang.
- Turner, David H. 1996. Return to Eden: a journey through the aboriginal promised landscape of Amagalyuagba. Toronto studies in religion, vol. 21. New York: Peter Lang.
- Turner, David H. 1997. Afterlife before Genesis: an introduction : accessing the eternal through Australian Aboriginal music. Toronto studies in religion, vol. 22. New York: Peter Lang.
- Turner, David H. 1999. Genesis regained: Aboriginal forms of renunciation in Judeo-Christian scriptures and other major traditions. Toronto studies in religion, vol. 25. New York: Peter Lang.
- Turner, David H. 2002. The spirit lives: a personal journey from loss to understanding through religious experience. New York: Peter Lang.