ABSTRACT
The Aboriginal people of central Australia have evolved a unique form of public discourse. Ordinary public discussion among the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi, and other Western Desert dialect groups proceeds within the constraint that a consensus among discussion participants be preserved. The preservation of this consensus is achieved by the unasser-tiveness of participants, avoidance of direct argumentation, a deferral of topics that will produce disharmony, and, above all, by an objectification of discourse that is effected by a serial production of summary accounts of the participants' deliberations.
