Melodies of Mourning : Music and Emotion in Northern Australia

This work presents a theoretically rich and ethnographically vivid account of the way that song, dance and musical sensitivity weave into the lives of an aboriginal community of Australia.

It focuses upon the song and associated emotional experience of women, and the way in which children are socialized into the musical and imaginative discourses and practices of the adult world.

It makes a distinctive contribution to the tradition of anthropological analysis which focuses on the located nature of human sensual experience.