ABSTRACT
The Seasonal Rhythm of Rural Employment Opportunities for the economic incorporation of the Dhan-gadi occur until the late nineteenth or early twentieth century when the labour requirements of the local economy increased through diversification and expansion. The instrumental or goal-oriented perceptions of employment of Dhan-gadi men are an extension into a capitalist economy of a subsistence ideology geared to the securing of particular goods for their use value. The perpetuation of a subsistence ideology was in part conditioned by the specificities of the incorporation of the Dhan-gadi into the local economy. The local economy relied on the Dhan-gadi to provision themselves independently for a substantial period of the year, especially in the spring/summer when their labour was not required. The pattern of consumption associated with the subsistence ideology of the Dhan-gadi was maintained despite the local capitalist economy of the Macleay Valley being dominated by the production of exchange values.
