The proper breadth of interest : Norman B. Tindale: the development of a fieldworker in Aboriginal Australia 1900-1936

Abstract

The tool which sculpts any life into its distinctive form is choice. To understand the whole, or even a fraction of the existence of one man, it is essential to trace the choices which gave that life its unique contour. For an historian or an interpreter of life the same forces operate. The interpreter will choose to spotlight events in his subjects life that help to elicit a particular picture of his development. So it is possible to take two dates - 8 February 1987 and 17 December 1911 - pulled out of time by an historian, and attempt to follow the path that winds between them. These two days, in themselves, may not be unlike any other days in the complete structure of a life. It is the historian who extracts and gives meaning to these moments by showing some connection between them. There seems to be a certain continuity in the motivation of Tindale at the age of 86 and Norman aged 11. Both recognised the importance of recording scientific knowledge to be left as a legacy for the benefit of builders of the future. This correlation in ideas inspires the historian to delve into the time between these two dates to uncover the way in which aspirations are acted out in everyday living. What did Tindale do? What choices did he make to fulfil his father's precepts?