differently gifted performers, and transformed according
into the changing needs and circumstances of each genera-
tion (Stanner, 1963, p. 84).
Stanner’s work contributed much to contemporary un-
derstandings of “The Dreaming,” the linkage of specific Ab-
original persons, places, fauna, and flora in the present in
identifiable groupings extending back to a timeless concep-
tion. Within this ontological frame, Stanner argued, there
was no tension between past, present, and future. He teased
out aspects of this logic and its narrative content in Murrinh-
pata myth to illustrate the basis of Aborigines’ acceptance of
reality as a necessary connection between life and suffering.
In the Murrinh-pata theory of reality, life was conceived “as
a joyous thing with maggots at the centre” (Stanner, 1963,
p. 37).
Critics argue that Stanner failed to fully transcend the
limitations of structural-functionalism and sufficiently inte-
grate his theoretical ideas with his ethnography. He shied
away from analyzing those aspects of his material—the con-
junction of religion and politics—that would have furnished
the development of a theory of action. Stanner himself re-
garded his work as unfinished. It was a contribution to a gen-
eral reappraisal of Australian Aboriginal religion that would
“require the efforts of many scholars.” A humanist with un-
tiring commitment to social justice, a campaigner for land
rights, a sensitive intercultural interpreter with a great gift for
writing, Stanner sought to conjure up the richness and philo-
sophical depth of Aboriginal religious systems.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Keen, Ian. “Stanner on Aboriginal Religion.” Canberra Anthropol-
ogy 9, no. 2 (1986): 26–50.
Morphy, Howard. “The Resurrection of the Hydra: Twenty-five
Years of Research of Aboriginal Religion.” In Social Anthro-
pology and Australian Aboriginal Studies: A Contemporary
Overview, edited by Ronald M. Berndt and Robert Tonkin-
son, pp. 239–265. Canberra, 1988.
Stanner, W. E. H. “The Dreaming.” In Australian Signpost: An
Anthology, edited by T. Hungerford, pp. 51–65. London,
1956; reprinted in Stanner, 1979, pp. 23–40.
Stanner, W. E. H. “Continuity and Change among the Aborigi-
nes.” Australian Journal of Science 21 (1958): 99–109; re-
printed in Stanner, 1979, pp. 41–66.
Stanner, W. E. H. On Aboriginal Religion. Sydney, 1963; reprint,
1966, 1989.
Stanner, W. E. H. “Religion, Totemism, and Symbolism.” In Ab-
original Man in Australia: Essays in Honour or Emeritus Pro-
fessor A. P. Elkin, edited by Ronald M. Berndt and Catherine
H. Berndt, pp. 207–237. Sydney, 1965.
Stanner, W. E. H. “Reflections on Durkheim and Aboriginal Reli-
gion.” In Social Organization: Essays Presented to Raymond
Firth, edited by Maurice Freedman, pp. 217–240. London,
1967.
Stanner, W. E. H. After the Dreaming: The Boyer Lectures, 1968.
Sydney, 1969.
Stanner, W. E. H. White Man Got No Dreaming: Essays, 1938–
1973. Canberra, 1979.
MELINDA HINKSON (2005)STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton (1815–1902) was a principal leader and philosopher
of the American woman’s rights movement of the nineteenth
century. Her religious importance derives from The Woman’s
Bible (1895–1898), written and edited late in her career, and
from her influence in inspiring feminism to a rational, anti-
dogmatic attitude to faith.
Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York. Her father,
Daniel Cady, was a prominent lawyer, congressman, and
judge. When none of her brothers lived to maturity, Eliza-
beth wanted to become like a son to please him. Although
she never succeeded in satisfying her father, her precocious
intellect did gain the notice of her family’s Scottish Presbyte-
rian minister, Simon Hosack, who tutored her in ancient
languages. Her father’s profession also shaped her sensitivity
to legal protection and political details. Shocked by women’s
lack of rights in divorce and custody cases, she prioritized
such issues throughout her career, directly challenging tradi-
tional bastions of male authority. Her analysis and thorough
articulation of structural sexism were exemplary, and they
were complemented by her abilities as a polemical writer.
Stanton experienced the tumult of the Second Great
Awakening preacher Charles Finney while a student at
Emma Willard’s school in the early 1830s. The young Eliza-
beth felt susceptible to his rhetoric because of her “gloomy
Calvinistic training,” but upon becoming one of Finney’s
“victims” she noted, and regretted, the “dethronement of my
reason.” She deemed herself saved by intellection, by science,
rationality, and progress.
After her schooling was finished, Elizabeth became in-
volved with the antislavery movement. Through her cousin,
Gerrit Smith, she met her future husband, Henry Stanton
(1805–1887), one of the Lane Seminary rebels and an ardent
abolitionist. Though her father objected to the marriage, it
went forward in 1840, with a significant change in the mar-
riage vows: Elizabeth refused to “obey” an equal, so that
command was dropped. Their honeymoon brought more
substantive change, as the couple attended the 1840 World’s
Anti-Slavery Congress in London. Some American groups
included women delegates, but the British hosts refused to
seat them. However, it was here that Stanton met the Quaker
Lucretia Mott, who embodied a fuller range of possibilities
for women. While living in Boston, Stanton’s liberal reli-
gious outlook was reinforced as she absorbed Unitarian and
transcendentalist ideas, and as she met more women leaders,
including Lydia Maria Child and the Grimké sisters.
Stanton’s own fame blossomed with the fulfillment of
plans she and Mott had formulated to hold a woman’s rights
conference. This finally occured in 1848, when the first8730 STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY