Hi Penny, Anne, Niels....
Echoing Penny "Speaking as a pommmie migrant....." I am getting more
and more concerned about the overrepresentation of NW European
"protestant" countries and their exports on this mailing list.
("Protestant countries" goes back to Durkheim's marvellous pioneering
sociological works - especially the suicide study - over 100 years ago.)
Is there any social anthropologist out there who can give hints (like
those that Victoria Quinton was asking about in relation to children)
which would help us birders embrace people from other backgrounds ?
For the original Australians - as I understand it - birds, animals and
other "things" were/are part of thinking about the world: who we are and
they are and what we must do to preserve what is precious. Usurping
English monarchs adopted badges like Broom (the Plantagenets - not
wanted here) or roses (red or white -ditto). What is valued and should
be built upon in relation to non-Pom cultures ? How should this
wasteful society build upon its aboriginal heritage ?
Michael Norris
Hampton, Vic
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