Abstract
In this chapter, I discuss the socialization of Warlpiri children in relation to the treatment of old, socially incapacitated people, focusing in both contexts on the key concept, warungka. This Warlpiri term encompasses a range of meanings, including deaf, crazy, forgetful, mindless, unconscious, intoxicated and irate. In addition to these situationally ascribed meanings, it is also used to label the state of being of (a) children from their conception until they become social persons, and (b) old persons when they begin to lose their social capacities. I explore this perceived resemblance between the two phases at the beginning and the end of the life cycle through the anthropological literature on Warlpiri (and neighbouring) understandings of personhood.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Growing Up in Central Australia: New Anthropological Studies of Aboriginal Childhood and Adolescence |
| Editors | Ute Eickelcamp |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books |
| Pages | 63-81 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Edition | 1 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780857450821 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |