Talk:Indigenous Australians

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I will go deleting this material for as long as is necessary to deter this person. This has nothing to do with the issue of cannibalism, it has to do with the behaviour of this person in continually spamming this page while making no effort to edit the article or do anything contructive. 11:38, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry Adam, we're working at cross-purposes for a moment. I've reposted Premier's section and my response for now. If this gets us nowhere, he's all yours. Hesperian 12:02, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Walter Roth on cannibalism

I put it to you that Walter Roth is a credible, NPOV source.

I have put this information in the article and will keep putting it back indefinately:

"A number of sources have claimed that cannibalism was practiced in Indigenous coummunities, including Walter Roth in his monumental study The Queensland Aborigines. If cannibalism did occur, the lack of eyewitness accounts suggests it was a taboo and ritualised practice, used for ceremonial (perhaps initiation) purposes. Evidence does not point to it being a regular practice; only certain people would probably have engaged in it and then rarely."

Premier 10:44, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Premier, this is not acceptable. "I will keep putting it back indefinitely" is not the way we work around here. I agree that there is a massive body of prima facie evidence for the position that Indigenous Australians engaged in cannibalism. A huge body of such evidence is presented in Cooke, James (1997) "Anthropophagitism in the Antipodes, or Cannibalism in Australia". I highly recommend you get hold of a copy. However, it is also true that many clever anthopologists and historians have remained unconvinced by this evidence.

In disputes like this, the only way forward is to seek statements that are irrefutable. If you say

"Australian Aborigines practiced cannibalism"

then there will be a lot of right-minded, highly qualified people who disagree with you. If you say

"Australian Aborigines did not practice cannibalism"

then there will be a lot of right-minded, highly qualified people who disagree with you. If you say

"There is an abundance of historical writing that can be interpreted as prima facie evidence of cannibalism amongst Australian Aborigines, but much of this has been dismissed as indicative of cultural bias and ignorance on the part of its writers."

why, you might just get 75% of people agreeing with you. Refine the above, providing plenty of copmelling references, and you might just end up crafting a statement that no right-minded intelligent person can refute.

I realise that this kind of research would involve a lot of hard work. But sometimes that's the price you have to pay for the truth. Meanwhile, it is better for this article to say nothing about cannibalism than to take a position on the issue. I will now remove your cannibalism claim pending discussion on this talk page leading to consensus on how to deal with this. I urge you to reconsider your "I will keep putting it back indefinitely" statement. People who behave that way just get blocked.

Hesperian 12:02, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

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