Melodies of Mourning

Presents an ethnographical account of the way that song, dance and musical sensitivity weave into the lives of an aboriginal community of Australia. Invites the reader to rethink the place of ecology in music and emotion, and how emotions transcend cultural difference. It shows how sounds and the senses shape feelings for the land and seascape, exploring these themes in relation to Yolngu of north east Arnhem Land in Northern Australia. This rich ethnographic study makes a distinctive contribution to the tradition of anthropological analysis which focuses on the located nature of human sensual experience. FIONA MAGOWAN is a lecturer in Anthropology at Queen's University, Belfast Series editors: Wendy James and N. J. Allen Australia: University of Western Australia Press