ELKIN, ADOLPHUS P.

Australian anthropologist at Sydney University and author ofAboriginal Men of High Degree(1945). In contrast with pervasive denigrations ofAboriginal Australiansin general and their “doctors” or “medicine people” in particular, Elkin argued that “the real medicine man is a professional individual of special training whose personality, from the point of view of the community, reaches a high degree of normality.” He notes claims aboutinitiatorydismembermentand the insertion of crystals and other powerful objects, but counters assertions about the psychological ill-health of “men of high degree” by referring to their otherwise normal social and relational behaviors.