Indigenous cultural tastes and capitals : gendered and class formations

This chapter addresses the differences and similarities between the tastes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents and non-Indigenous members of the Australian Cultural Fields survey. It also considers how Indigenous cultural tastes and practices are internally differentiated along gendered and class lines. These questions are pursued initially at an aggregate level by reviewing general patterns of difference between the tastes of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sample and those evidenced by the Australian Cultural Fields main sample and boost samples of Chinese, Lebanese, Indian and Italian Australians. Consideration is then given to the internal differentiations of Indigenous tastes that are most strongly associated with different cultural fields. The chapter concludes by considering the light our findings on these questions throw on broader debates regarding the role played by distinctive forms of Indigenous cultural capital in the development of an Indigenous professional middle class. It is also argued that a proper understanding of the functioning of Indigenous cultural capital requires that it be understood as operating within an Indigenous cultural field that forms a relatively autonomous sub-field within the Australian cultural field.