The name is absent

413

Internal evidence from Statements 46, 34, 33 and 41 below (pp∙416-17)
indicates that Aborigines in the study do not deny their Aboriginality
in the sense of being ashamed. IVhat they seek to avoid is a particular
Aboriginal sub-culture of poverty.                             ..

This response would seem to attack the commonly held view that
being beholden to relatives is a ,particularly Aboriginal value,
and in fact is often the cause of a low standard of living.

The desire to move out, whether or not this course is espoused
in reality, indicates that kinship allegianc¾ in some cases_j rather
than being held as a value, is felt as an oppression. Thus a value
-⅜

that is held to be ^,what everyone knows’ for Aborigines, namely their
attachment to tightly knit kinship groups, is in fact a value supported
by non-Aborigines to a greater extent than Aborigines.

Ths hypothesis that Aborigines would respond positively to' state-
ments linking them into kinship groups was not supported.

24.23 Strain towards negative identity

De Levita¹ (1965) notes the strain towards delinquency that
is often the expression of an assertion of personhood - it is better
to be a delinquent than to be nothing. It is the option to choose
2          .

a negative identity in terms of the definitions given above . This
view was expressed in interviews by Aboriginal adults, looking back
at a time when they were uncertain of their identity and felt rejected
by the white society in which they were trying to establish themselves.
There is a high proportional representation of Aboriginal people
in delinquency statistics (Bailey, 1980).

24.23   (a) Hypothesis

It was hypothesized that there would be support for the statement
choosing negative identity rather than identity-diffusion.

¹See p. 34.

²See pp. 31-32.

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