Gordon

Mandatory Gaol Sentences for Minor Property Crime in Australia's Northern Territory

The mandatory detention of adults and juveniles in Australia's Northern Territory (and less drastically in the State of Western Australia) has been the subject of local, national and international controversy. My purpose here is to describe the laws, outline their criticisms and define the response of the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments.

Behind the Headlines: Violence, Land, and People in a Changing Southern Africa

Behind the Headlines: Violence, Land, and People in a Changing Southern. Africa

Nelson Mandela's release in 1990 set in train, as Nadine Gordimer put it, "the complete reversal of everything that, for centuries, has ordered the lives of all our people." After decades of sanctions, boycotts, and isolation, the South African government moved to dismantle apartheid, graphically illustrating the effectiveness of non-violent strategies for changing immoral policies.

People of the Great White Lie?

John Paul Myburgh's film People of the Great Sandface (1986) has apparently been well received in Britain and Europe and hailed by respected, well-informed and critical South African media commentators as a breakthrough in South African ethnographic film. Yet People of the Great Sandface raises troubling questions, not only about how we portray the human dimension of southern Africa, but about the very nature of the academic enterprise known as visual anthropology.

Anthropology and Apartheid - The Rise of Military Ethnology in South Africa

The use of anthropologists by military forces did not begin in Vietnam or with Project Camelot in Latin America. Already in 1941 the American Anthropological Association had unanimously passed a resolution calling on all members to place themselves and their specialized skills and knowledge "at the disposal of the country for the successful prosecution of the war." Many enthusiastically did, participating in activities ranging from Carleton Coon's OSS (Office of Strategic Services) spy missions to developing etiquette guides or advising on counterinsurgency.

The !Kung San: A Labor History

South Africa's system of exploiting Namibian labor through the migrant contract system has been justifiably condemned by politicians and academics. In this system, male workers leave their families in the labor reservoirs of Ovamboland and Kavango and take lengthy contracts to the area of white settlement. There they are employed, often under atrocious conditions, for periods ranging from 6 to 24 months at salaries which would barely qualify as "pocket money."