The Walbiri Iconography: Graphic Representation and Cultural Symbolism in a Central Australian Society

Record summary

Nancy D. Munn’s study of Walbiri visual symbolism examines how designs, ritual action, ancestral narratives and social knowledge are connected. It may matter for comparison because altered-state and consciousness research often treats symbolic experience as private, while this work situates meaning in collectively transmitted ritual systems. The book is not evidence for paranormal perception or literal travel outside the body. Its value is comparative and anthropological: it helps distinguish culturally organized visionary language from experimentally tested psi claims and from later popular uses of the term Dreaming.