Conflict and Territoriality in Aboriginal Australia: Evidence from Biology and Ethnography

This chapter examines both skeletal and ethnographic evidence for warfare and violence in Aboriginal Australia, focusing principally on the Central Murray River, a rich and densely populated area approximately 500 km long in the Murray-Darling Basin. The skeletal evidence for warfare and violence in the Central Murray area comes from a variety of sources, including first-hand field research and data gathered from museum collections as well as data from published sources. The brief overview of the Central Murray demonstrates the relationship between environment, demography, biology, and social organization that is central to this regional model. Ecological theory has been used to good effect in the analysis of social organization in the archaeological record, where territoriality is related to resources and demography. Biological evidence shows highly differentiated, but stable, populations along the Murray River, both created and maintained by gene flow and inter-marriage patterns in a linear context.