Fourth world economic development: the establishment of capitalism in three aboriginal communities in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland?

Abstract

Aboriginal economic development in Australia is examined through case studies of three communities in Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. For the purposes of analysis, Cape York is treated as an Aboriginal domain and the communities are treated as individual colonies. The central question of the thesis is "Is capitalism being established as the dominant mode of production?" It is not presumed that capitalism is or will be established in the Aboriginal colonies and so the ways in which the capitalist and Aboriginal modes of production frustrate, reinforce and transform one another in the process of articulation are examined. Thus the following questions are asked, (1) "How exactly is the dominance of capitalism being established?", (2) "What footholds for this dominance are to be found in the old relations of production? ", and (3) "In what sense did the latter become transformed so as to fit in with the specific requirements of capitalist interests?". And their reverse: (4) "In what ways, if at all, is the Aboriginal mode of production remaining as the dominant mode?", (5) "In what ways, if at all, does capitalism lend itself to the maintenance of the dominance of the Aboriginal mode of production?" and, (6) "How is the capitalist mode of production itself modified as a result of colonisation?" Show more