ABSTRACT
Dominance-resistance theory has often been applied within studies of contact in order to highlight various aspects of the mostly unequal struggle between invaders empowered with superior technology, ideology and language, and the invaded who, armed only with an appropriate lifestyle and familiarity with local conditions, reacted by resistance (e.g. Beaudry et al. 1991; Deetz 1967; Deagan 1983; 1985; 1990; Miller 1989; Miller et al. 1989; Paynter and McGuire 1991; McEwan 1991; Farnsworth 1992). This chapter uses recent archaeological research at the Killalpaninna mission, South Australia (Figure 13.1), as a case study for assessing the relevance of dominance-resistance theory for a remote, arid-region, Australian mission site where in the latter part of the nineteenth century black-suited Lutheran Christians confronted their would-be congregation of highly specialized Aboriginal foragers (cf. Stevens 1994).
