Anthropology vs. Ethnography in native title: A review article in the context of Peter Sutton’s native title in Australia

Native Title anthropology is changing rapidly as lawyers and judges alter their perceptions of it in the light of successive court hearings. As a practising native title anthropologist, I am concerned about the ever-widening gap between native title anthropology and the project of ethnography as I still construe it*though it may be that within an anthropology changing as fast as native title itself, I may not be in a position to characterise ethnography to the satisfaction of many of my colleagues any more. In this article, I examine Peter Suttons Native Title in Australia alongside several other related titles and, while I do not intend this to be a full-scale review article, I do hope that it provides one interpretation of the current relationship between disciplinary anthropology, what I perceive to be its theoretical underpinnings, and the demands of its native title sub-speciality.