[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
66
to elaborate a general View of the entire Western Desert and approach it as a holistic system.
The two approaches are, therefore, quite distinct.
Christensen suggests that Karimarra becomes Tjaruiru when one moves fiom the Mardu
to the Ngaatjatjarra, whereas my hypothesis is that Tjarurru came from the south-west and
has been diffused in tandem with Karimarra. Christensen suggests that Karimarra becomes
Burgulu when one moves from the Ngaatjatjarra to the Pintupi; I propose that Burgulu came
to the Pintupi from the Yulbaridya area to the north-west, and that it was not necessary to
replace Karimarra; rather, the Karimarra section is identical by assimilation with Milangka
among the Ngaatjatj arra. Christensen suggests that Yiparrka becomes Panaka when one moves
from the centre of the desert to the southern limit; I conclude that Yiparrka and Panaka had
dififused in this region together. These divergences indicate that the problem of the diffusion
of section names into and within the Western Desert remains open for further consideration. A
reconsttuctionist and holistic approach, as adopted here, cannot produce identical results to a
local or regionally based STEP-by-STEP approach. However, while there are some divergences
concerning the routes that section names took during their diffusion into the central and
eastern parts of the Western Desert, the elaborated equivalence rules are basically the same in
both Christensen’s and my work, and it is only regrettable that the former has not been made
available to a larger public.