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Paper short abstract:

Using examples from the Warlpiri diaspora project, this is an attempt to build a conceptual map of biculturalism by examining the ideas of cultural distance, cultural competence, double consciousness, social networks, social code-switching, habitus, divided habitus and intermediary figures.

Paper long abstract:

This paper attempts to deepen my reflection on the Warlpiri bicultural adepts I encountered in the Warlpiri diaspora by developing a conceptual map of the terrain of biculturalism. This involves a move beyond the recognition of cultural difference to the evaluation of cultural distance and the meaning of cultural competence. It is also congruent with the critique of the exoticising tendency of anthropology and its tendency towards the assumption of cultural continuity. The constant experience of difference by conspicuous minorities led Du Bois to theorise 'double consciousness' as black minorities in America continually self-monitor how they are being perceived by white people. Theories of the intercultural explore how Australian Indigenous culture is moulded by interaction with the encapsulating settler society and its successive projects, even in remote Australia. For the few who excel in being able to move in the dominant culture questions arise about the limits of social code-switching, the limits of managing diverse social networks and the persistence of the natal habitus (or perhaps a divided habitus [habitus clivé]). Are there similarities between the Indigenous bicultural adepts and the experience of social class ascendancy within the dominant culture, such as ambiguous feelings of pride in and estrangement from the natal culture? Are there similarities with the migrant experience? State-centric approaches would investigate the ways in which the promotion of the bicultural adept as a policy goal is part of the statecraft of colonial governance. But is the bicultural adept inevitably an intermediary figure?