An expanding Aboriginal domain: Mobility and the initiation journey

Some pre-circumcision candidates in the Western Desert culture area are tak en on a journey to gather people for the final ceremony. Since Aboriginal p eople started to own cars in the 1960s, these journeys have expanded to suc h an extent that the outward journey discussed here covered 2250 km. The qu estion of why it is the initiation ceremony, rather than some other ceremon ial form, that is becoming the basis for the integration of this expanding Aboriginal domain is addressed and the fragmentary evidence on the historic al growth of the journeys presented. Three kinds of ceremonial integration are distinguished and a suggestion made as to why it is the initiation form that is the focus of this expansion.