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Concept
Western Desert cultural bloc
Summary
The Western Desert cultural bloc (also capitalised, abbreviated to WDCB, or just Western Desert) is a cultural region in central Australia covering about , used to describe a group of linguistically and culturally similar Aboriginal Australian nations.
The term Western Desert cultural bloc is often used by anthropologists and linguists when discussing the 40 or so Aboriginal groups that live there, who speak dialects of one language, often called the Western Desert language. The term cultural bloc is used by anthropologists to describe culturally and linguistically similar groups (or nations) of Aboriginal peoples of Australia.
According to anthropologist Robert Tonkinson:
Extending over a million square miles, the Western Desert... covers a vast area of the interior of the continent. It extends across western South Australia into central and central northern Western Australia (south of the Kimberleys) and south-western Northern Territory, and it includes most of the hill country in northern South Australia..The area is marked by an overall similarity in both climatic conditions... and physiographical characteristics. More important, however, is its delineation as a distinct culture area.. its Aboriginal inhabitants share a common language (with dialectal variations), social organization, relationship to the natural environment, religion and mythology and aesthetic expression. The term Western Desert, then refers to both a cultural bloc and a geographical entity.
The WDCB covers around and extends across much of Western Australia, parts of South Australia, and parts of the Northern Territory. includes the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It stretches from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley in the north, and from the Percival Lakes in the west through to the Pintupi lands in the Northern Territory.
Official source
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