Prehistoric Aboriginal Culture : Static Or Dynamic?

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

Prior to researching about the Navajo Native American art forms, I was unaware of all the various forms of art seen in their culture. Most people think of the paintings and drawings when they think of art, but there are other forms of art and ways to be expressive without painting and drawing. Upon researching this fascinating culture, I learned so much more about their lives and the forms of art that they create. Throughout this paper I will be talking about the different art forms the Navajo culture possesses. The Navajo art forms consist of jewelry, blankets, rugs, pottery and baskets.

In the 18th century approximately 40,000 years before the European colonization, 750,000 to 1,000,000 indigenous people inhabited in Australia. The Indigenous Australians have a complex oral culture and an admiration for their land and their spiritual values were based upon their admirations to the dreamtime (Indigenous People

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

In the Aboriginal tradition, societal practices and customs are passed from one generation to the next by

Anthropologists in the 20th century have been influential in conditioning on how Aboriginal society was understood and viewed by the general public based on British influenced intellectuals, governments, journalists ,and, the courts. However, there isn’t a theory within Australian anthropology that could helve the growing feud between the indigenous and the intruders. However, questioning any tradition in’t practiced among the predominantly positivist Aboriginalists. Recent attempts to re-examine the relationships between past anthropological practices have aroused defensive reactions, when it actuality it is attempt to gain informed relationship about the sciences and political influences on the wider community.

Aboriginal people have diverse relationships with connections and understandings of the Australian environment. Some of there relationships are based on the traditional knowledges and practices that have been passed down from generation to generation while others are a direct result from recent colonisation. Relationships to country are complex and interrelated, and when establishing the Aboriginal understanding of country, it is vital to look beyond the term itself.

The Oxford dictionary defines the stolen generation as: “The Aboriginal people forcibly removed from their families as children between the 1900s and the 1960s, to be brought up by white foster families or in institutions.” But what the oxford definition cannot tell us is the horrible impacts of the stolen generation on the stolen children, their families, the Aboriginal culture and Australia as a Nation. The stolen generation was caused by European Australians belief that Aboriginal people were inferior to them, a belief stemming from the fact that the Aboriginal people had not industrialised and therefore they appeared primitive to European Australians whom had industrialised in the 1700s. The European Australians also believed that the

Even though there are many Aboriginal tribes with often different Stories to explain the creation of themselves and the land, there is a similarity in all the stories across the continent. (Rose D, 1996). As Western society attempts to explain their world view through a creation story involving a central God, the Aboriginals explain their world view through a creation story involving Ancestral Spirits. (Dean C, 1996)

This resulted in the emergence of a culture adapted to the forested mountains of the region (“Aboriginal People: Plateau” par,

These myths and rituals were also a source of inspiration for much aboriginal art, including paintings, carved objects, symbolic weapons and poetic chants. The forms of art varied according to region, with differences in the decoration of objects and weapons depending on local myths and traditions.

Before the history is recorded through the invention of writing, the prehistoric men had been showing their existence or culture through painting, tools used, and oral traditions. The end of prehistory is different for every region since the discovery of writing varies with different places. By using the oral traditions, tools, and painting, numerous philosophers claimed several ideas of how the prehistoric men lives and the culture or social behaviors in the prehistoric period. However, as different new antiques are found, philosophers then presented new theories about the prehistoric men’s cultures. Therefore, our perspectives for the prehistoric culture are also changed or shifted throughout the time. Moreover, with different fields of study

Australian Aborigines are thought to have the longest continuous cultural history in the world. Yet, within a hundred years, the near extinction of the Aboriginal culture almost occurred. This single event, the invasion of the Australian continent by European settlers, changed the lifestyle, the culture, and the fate of Australian Aborigines. Their entire lives were essentially taken away and they were forced into a white, European world where the lifestyle change could not have been any different. Aborigines in Australia today are struggling to deal with a past in which they lost touch with their culture and now are trying to regain some of that cultural identity.

Throughout history to present day, Australian culture has become the product of a distinct blend of established traditions and new influences. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the country’s original inhabitants, created the foundation for the land’s cultural traditions over 40,000 years ago. In addition, the rest of Australia’s people are migrants or descendants of migrants from various other countries who transported their own customs, beliefs, and value systems to the land. As a result, Australia’s culture has significantly broadened its social and cultural profile over the years, and still continues to evolve today.

Now, to an untrained eye, Aboriginal art may seem random, but the art was actually very descriptive in how it passed information and stories down from one generation to the next. The Aboriginal artists used shapes, figures and patterns to represent the animals of the Australian Outback, and to draw maps of recognizable local landmarks. A lot of their art also carried the theme of “Dreamtime”, which was the Aboriginal legend of when and how the world was created.