The name is absent

16

The Aboriginal people in voicing the need to ’grab’ identity,
to ^,build* identity, instinctively context themselves within the
theoretical framework provided by the sociology of knowledge.

The society into which they are born is a social construct.
Identity is a social construct.

The need is to map the ’world* of meaning in which Aborigines
are situated, to contribute to their understanding of this world
of meaning in order that they may intervene in this reality to
construct an Aboriginal identity.

This is the object of this study.

The Aboriginal world of meaning, however, must be seen in its
relationship to the dominant group.

Aborigines are members both of an ethnic group and racial
group.

The implications of membership of these groups will now be
examined.

2.3 Typologies of ethnic and racial groups

2.3i Ethnicity and identity

Barth (1969:10, 11) examines the accepted definitions of
the term ’ethnic group*, generally understood in anthropological
literature to designate a population which

1. is largely biologically self-perpetuating

2. shares fundamental cultural values realized in
overt unity in cultural forms

ʒ.    makes up a field of communication and interaction

4.    has a membership which identifies itself and is

identified by others as constituting a category
distinguishable from other categories of the same
order.

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