Rationality, Ideological Transfer, Cultural Resistance, and the Dreaming 
123 
Anthropos 89.1994 
graphics, didjeridoo-playing, etc., considered es 
sential ingredients in a culturally based identity 
(see Keeffe 1988: 68 f.). The selection of items 
which are supposed to characterize Aboriginality 
seems to be heavily influenced by Western notions 
and aesthetics. (Why, for instance, is “pointing the 
bone” not considered an essential part of Aborigi 
nal identity?) Interestingly, the culturally uprooted 
youth is told, obviously to reassure them, that 
Aboriginal culture is in the blood, thus presenting 
culture as a fixed body of knowledge, meaning, 
and understanding which is to be understood as 
genetically transmitted and reproduced. The mys 
tical linking of “blood” and culture is certainly 
not a traditional (in the sense of pre-European) 
Aboriginal notion but reflects an outdated anthro 
pological theory which, to some extent, is still 
popularly held. The construction of identity closely 
tied to cultural resistance and the maintenance of 
“traditional culture” as a form of opposition to the 
dominant system as it is, reveals that oppositional 
culture emerges not only often as a new construct 
but also as the result of ideological transfer and 
demonstrates the crucial articulation of this ideol 
ogy with the dominant one. 
Subcultures have often been seen as sources 
of resistance to dominant cultures; for instance, 
the youth-subculture, the so-called popular culture, 
and the American counter-culture of the 60s which 
was wholly an “oppositional culture” resisting the 
hegemonic domination of American mainstream 
culture. In rejecting the official epistemic position 
and substituting rebellious ones, these subcultures 
develop their own rituals and values to distin 
guish themselves and express opposition, but also 
draw heavily on the dominant ideology for episte- 
mic support. Thus ideological systems are offering 
imaginary solutions to real problems, but offer also 
gains in terms of winning space for a subordinate 
group by keeping hegemonic encroachment at bay. 
In this vein, Gramsci has argued that folklore is 
not necessarily simply a survival of past, by-gone 
beliefs, but inherently contestative of the dominant 
system. It may be an active resistance and rejec 
tion of an “official” culture or way of looking at 
the world. The latter then retaliates by castigating 
the defiant ideology as “superstition,” deviant or 
“irrational” and contrary to good reason. Although 
Gramsci’s view (laden with class theory as it is) 
may be easily criticized as an overly mechanistic 
exposition of the relationship of two cultures, one 
subordinate and the other the official or dominant 
one, this can serve as a useful analogy to see 
Aboriginal oppositional culture. 
It is through the articulation of the two ideolo 
gies, the dominant and the subordinate or opposi 
tional one, that the process of rationalization has 
been set in motion and is being continued now in 
the form of the rational penetration of the cultural 
system as to the effects achievable by a process of 
cultural resistance which includes cultural renewal. 
We ought to bear in mind that efforts directed 
at cultural renewal (and this includes religious 
renewal) are not necessarily hostile to rationali 
zation. After all, Max Weber (e.g., 1958) showed 
that fundamentalism can provide a great boost for 
rationalization. The strengthening of a tradition 
al ingredient in contemporary Aboriginal culture 
therefore is not necessarily anathema to the process 
of rationalization, but - inspired by it in the first 
place - may well help it along considerably. 
A highly abridged version of this paper was read in a 
workshop on colonialism at the 3rd Conference of the 
International Society for the Study of European Ideas 
(ISSEI), at Aalborg University, Denmark, in August 
1992. 
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