Drawing on early colonial cources as well as the writing of amateur and professional anthropologists, liguists and archaeloogists, Aboriginal Economy and Society compares the socail life and culture os seven regions of Australia as they appear to have been at the threshold of colonisation. With a focus on the economy,the broad scope of the book encmpasses variation in environmental conditions, resources and technologies; key institutions including kinship,cosmologies and governance; and organisation of production, distribution, exchange and consumption.