Aboriginal in Australia Group 8
Background
Background
The word Aboriginal can be translated to mean "first", hinting they are the original settlers of Australia. They are estimated to have arrived to the Australian content anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 years before European settlements. Specifically in Australia the Aboriginal Australians remain to have a bushman style and many other lives in slums on the outskirts of towns.
Aborigine people are among the earliest human migrations out of Africa. It is unlikely that they directly traveled from Africa to Australia but probably migrated through Southeast Asia.
The Aborigine people were hunter gatherers. They respected the land and the animals. They knew not to over hunt or plant, in order to save their resources for the next season. The Aborigines had such an abundance of resources that they had more time to expand their knowledge and culture, unlike other indigenous tribes. Then, in 1770 Lt James Cook discovered Australia and with him came disease, colonization, and eventually invasion.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Medicine
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Language
The sign language that the Aboriginals use is extremely similar between different languages around Australia. If one understood one sign language, he can quickly grasp another because they are all just different dialects among one common sign language. The same is not true for their spoken dialects. The spoken languages that they use are very different and complex. There are twenty seven different language families that are known today, and they are all connected to a geographic area of Australia. Many of these languages consider signing, or hand-talk, to be a completely valid use of communication, even in casual settings. Others require spoken language when appropriate according to their culture and traditions, and signing when spoken language is not appropriate.
The number of languages that Aboriginals speak has dropped significantly from an outstanding 250 to a mere 20 today. This is primarily due to the colonization of their territories by European settlers. Their culture has been looked at as primitive from the European perspective, however it is far from primitive and extremely complex. The Language that they speak is the symbolic capital that gives them social capital.
Over-all, language is extremely important to the Aboriginals of Australia because it not only connects them together in the physical realm of reality, but it connects them to their spiritual and religious world.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Social Organization
Brief Religious Overview
The Creation Being pertains to the gods that developed the creation of people and the environment.
Ancestral Beings pertains to the gods that helped teach the first Aboriginal people to make tools, to hunt for food, as well as creating laws and conducting ceremonies. Each Ancestral Being has their own story during the creation period. The stories of the Ancestral gods are different form tribe to tribe, but all the tribes describe the stories through song, dance and ceremony.
Totemic Beings pertains to the gods that represent the original form of animals, plants and other objects as they were during the Creation Period. There are multiple of these relationships, for instance a tribe may share a special relationship with a landscape that represents their land.
The Creation Period is also referred to the Dreamtime. This is the time period that the Aborigines believe the gods created landforms, animals and plants. The stories are similar to many other religions seem to contain a moral lesson within the stories, but the aborignies represent their stories through art and dance, as they do not have a written language. The Aborigines interpret their dreams as being a memory of the Creation period. This concept that dreams connect the people with the time of creation has created the alternative name of the Creation Period, "Dreamtime".