data which are reported in this study concern the skills used by Aboriginal people at Bamyili, an isolated community in the Northern Territory of Australia, in playing the card game commonly known as bayb kad.1 The data were collected from seven Aboriginal adults during informal card-playing sessions and semi-structured interviews based on the card sessions. Three male respondents could be described as first generation contact adults; that is, they were born and raised in a traditional hunting and gathering environment in southern Arnhem Land and had their first contact with European cattlemen, dingo hunters and miners when they were adolescents. Before the Second World War they were moved with other Aborigines to a compound at Mataranka near Katherine. During the War they lived in a number of compounds in the Katherine region, including Tandangal, before they were settled at Bamyili. All three were totally nonliterate, spoke only Aboriginal pidgin or Aboriginal dialects and were skilled ceremonial performers. Two of these men held unskilled positions with the local community council while the other pursued a traditional occupation of hunting and artifact making. They were approximately 40 to 50 years old. The other four respondents could be described as second generation contact adults. They were all either born or raised at Bamyili, had attended the local school, were educated at least to secondary school level and are now in their 20s. One male had completed post-secondary training and was a qualified teacher at the school. The other male worked as a resource person in the school's bilingual programme. Both had had considerable experience of ceremonial life and were fluent in a number of the local Aboriginal languages as well as English. Two female respondents worked in an auxiliary capacity at the school. Both spoke English and more than one Aboriginal dialect. The research was conducted over two field work periods. The bulk of the data was collected during seven months field research in 1976. This was followed by a short three week trip in mid-1977 which
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