Warlpiri Dreaming Spaces: 1983 and 1985 Seminars with Félix Guattari

This chapter unfolds a dialog between Guattari and Glowczewski about Australian collective dream-work, totemism and rituals of resistance during collective discussions, including Eric Alliez, Jean-Claude Pollack and Anne Querrien. ‘Félix Guattari — Barbara is an anthropologist specialising in Australian Aboriginal peoples who has written a fascinating piece of work about the dreaming process. I’d like her to tell us a bit about the collective technology of dreams among the Australian Aboriginal people she has studied. In this context, not only do dreams not depend on individual keys, but they are also part of an a posteriori elaboration of the dream that anthropologists have characterised as mythical. But Barbara comes close to refuting that definition. And dreaming is identified with the law, and with the possibility of mapping the itineraries of these people, who circulate all the time since they cover hundreds of kilometers. Barbara, I would like to ask you to try to tell us how the dreaming method functions. My first question is to ask you to explain the relationship between dream, territory, and itinerary.’