Cultural Wounding, Healing, and Emerging Ethnicities (PDF)

Amanda J. Kearney is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Convener of the Global Studies Program in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

"Amanda Kearney brings intelligence, theoretical sophistication, and an acute perception to bear on things that matter deeply to people as they negotiate the routines and the rituals of life-worlds dominated by centuries of ongoing exploitation. As she pushes the bounds of theory, she does justice to the mundane priorities of 'getting by.' Her deft ethnographic snapshots resound with the moral pulse of the everyday, memorably depicting the cultural dynamics of survival in action." - Patrick Wolfe, author of Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race

"In this impressive volume, Amanda Kearney provides a searching analysis of the consequences of systematic violations of people's cultural identities, while placing equal emphasis on actions designed to repair the injuries of inter-ethnic conflict and redress past and present wrongs. For her success in synthesising cultural wounding and cultural healing, so creating a better understanding of the conditions for ethnic recuperation, we owe Kearney a considerable debt." - Michael Pickering, Loughborough University, UK

"One of the most understudied aspects of ethnicity, the loss of self-esteem in marginalised groups is the topic of this excellent book. Amanda Kearney draws on her long-term engagement with Afro-Brazilian and Australian Aboriginal groups, analysing not just the wounding, but also contemporary healing processes. Avoiding the pitfalls of individual psychology and essentialism, this original and timely book adds a much needed dimension to the literature on ethnicity." - Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo, Norway