The Aborigines, the wild tribes that once inhabited Australia, are the original inhabitants of this continent. Now they make up only 1% of the total population. Australian aborigines inhabited the young continent 40-64 thousand years ago. Scientists believe that they arrived here from Asia. Before colonization, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia lived by gathering, fishing and hunting. These wild tribes did not know weaving, pottery, or metal working.
But they created a very deep and interesting system mythology and related art. Works of Australian Aboriginal art include mainly household utensils and objects of worship.
The wild tribes of Australia, its indigenous inhabitants, in our time received part of the territories as property. Tourists are prohibited from entering some areas. In their tribes they lead an ancient primitive way of life, like their ancestors for many centuries in a row.
Modern Australian Aborigines.
“Dreamtime” in the mythology of the Australian aborigines is the basis of all their traditional beliefs and worldviews. “The time of dreams” for them is the era when everything that was created appeared. The time when the earth appeared, all living beings, rain, wind, rivers... Australian aborigines believe that in the spiritual aspect, as a continuation of life experience (transmigration of souls), and also referring to the special, innate feeling of unity with the earth, “Dreamtime "continues today. Therefore, the expulsion of the aborigines from the land of their ancestors for them is tantamount to expulsion from the “Dream Time”, deprivation of the sacred connection with their ancestors, roots and faith in life. Equated to spiritual death. It is no secret that magical rituals are common among many nations.
The most popular among travelers are tours to the giant monolithic rock. The aborigines of Australia call it Uluru, the white population - Ayers Rock. The Aboriginal name means a place that provides shade or a meeting place. At sunset, Uluru turns bright orange. Its outlines resemble spaceship aliens. The height of Uluru reaches 350 meters, the length is up to 3 meters, and the width is just over 1.5 meters. It must be said that representatives of the Australian aborigines understand the fact that annoying tourists, for some reason, are not only interested in their sacred rock, but they also strive to climb it. Recently, at the foot of Uluru, they even discovered Cultural Center and paved a route around the rock.
Another popular tour among visiting tourists is the small town of Alice Springs in the MacDonnell Mountains. Tourists who come here in September witness a very unusual regatta - Henley-on-Todd. Competitions take place between rowers on boats that have no bottom. Watching the regatta participants rushing to the finish line in boats without a bottom along a dry river bed - a lot in this amazing country you begin to look at things in a new way and stop being surprised by many things.
Modern Aborigines, short video of 5 minutes:
An interesting film about the life of the aborigines: “Tracks of the Hunter Along the Hunter’s Path.” It turns out there are still aborigines who keep their traditions. I recommend watching it. In short, a white man and part-time award-winning filmmaker Larry Gray embarks on a perilous journey through Australia's Northern Territory. He travels barefoot and is armed only with a spear. And most importantly, he learns to survive in wildlife from his friend, Aboriginal and hunter Peter Daetzing.
Another film about the culture and traditions of the indigenous population of Australia: “ABORIGINAL DREAM TIME.” From the series Mysteries of Antiquity. (Ancient Mysteries. Aboriginal Dreamtime)
Survive at any cost. Kimberley - Australia. There are no Aboriginal people in this film, but there are plenty of traces of them. From this film you can understand what harsh conditions the aborigines had to survive.
And to finish, a few more old black and white photographs.
Australian Aboriginals
| Australian Aboriginals | |
       David Unaipon, Noel Pearson, Ernie Dingo, David Gulpilil, Jessica Mauboy, Cathy Freeman |
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| Current distribution area and numbers | |
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| Religion | |
| Racial type | |
| Related peoples | |
Aboriginal handicrafts
The population is 437 thousand (2001, census), including 26.9 thousand people. in the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait Islander Aboriginal people are culturally distinct from other Aboriginal people in Australia, sharing many similarities with Melanesians and Papuans.
Nowadays, most Aboriginal people rely on government and other charity. Traditional methods livelihoods (hunting, fishing and gathering, and among some of the Torres Strait Islanders - manual farming) have been almost completely lost.
Before the arrival of Europeans
The settlement of Australia occurred from 70-50 to 30 thousand years ago. The ancestors of Australians came from South-East Asia(mainly along the Pleistocene continental shelf, but also overcoming at least 90 km of water barriers). The additional influx of settlers who arrived by sea about 5 thousand years ago is probably associated with the appearance of the dingo dog and a new stone industry on the continent. Before European colonization began, the culture and racial type of Australians underwent significant evolution.
Colonial period
By the time Europeans arrived (XVIII century), the number of aborigines was about 2 million, united in more than 500 tribes that had a complex social organization, various myths and rituals and spoke more than 200 languages.
Colonization, accompanied by the targeted extermination of Australians, land dispossession and displacement into environmentally unfavorable areas, and epidemics, led to a sharp decrease in their numbers - to 60 thousand in 1921. However, government policies of protectionism (since the end of the 19th century), including the creation of government-protected reserves, as well as material and medical assistance (especially after the 2nd World War) contributed to the growth in the number of Australians.
By the mid-1990s, the Aboriginal population reached approximately 257 thousand people, representing 1.5% of the total population of Australia.
Astronomical and cosmological concepts in Aboriginal mythology
Australian Aborigines believed that there was not only our physical reality, but also another reality inhabited by the spirits of our ancestors. Our world and this reality intersect and mutually influence each other
One of the places where the world of “dreams” and real world, is the sky: the actions of ancestors are manifested in the appearance and movement of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, however, the actions of people can also affect what is happening in the sky.
Despite the fact that the aborigines have certain knowledge about the sky and objects in it, as well as individual attempts to use celestial objects for calendar purposes, there is no information that any of the aboriginal tribes used a calendar associated with the phases of the moon; Celestial objects were not used for navigation either.
Current situation
Currently, the growth rate of the Aboriginal population (due to the high birth rate) significantly exceeds the Australian average, although the standard of living is significantly lower than the Australian average. In 1967, the civil rights previously granted to Aboriginal people were enshrined in law. Since the late 1960s. A movement is developing for the revival of cultural identity, for the acquisition of legal rights to traditional lands. Many states have enacted laws providing for the collective ownership of reserve lands by Australians under self-government conditions, as well as protecting their cultural heritage.
Famous representatives of the Australian Aborigines are the artist, writer David Unaipon, footballer David Wirrpanda, TV presenter Ernie Dingo, actor and storyteller David Galpilil (Gulpilil), singer Jessica Mauboy (of mixed Australian-Timorese descent).
Since 2007, it has existed in Australia, operating along with other broadcasts for the national communities of the country SBS (broadcasts in 68 languages, including Russian). These programs, which began as domestic broadcasts, are now available throughout the world with the development of the Internet. Although National Aboriginal Television of Australia operates English language Due to the underdevelopment of indigenous dialects, it provides an opportunity for domestic and international audiences to learn indigenous languages through televised lessons launched since 2010.
Aboriginal culture in film
- - “The Last Wave”, a film by famous Australian director Peter Weir
- - “Rabbit Cage” (eng. Rabbit-proof fence), talks about attempts to “re-educate” Australian Aboriginal children.
- - “Ten Boats”, from the life of the Australian aborigines, which enjoyed success in the world film distribution and was even awarded a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival. All the actors in the film were natives and spoke their own language. native language Yolngu-matha.
see also
Notes
Literature
- Artyomova O. Yu. Personality and social norms in an early primitive community according to Australian ethnographic data. M., 1987
- Artyomova O. Yu. Past and present of indigenous Australians // Races and Peoples, vol. 10. M., 1980
- Berndt R.M., Berndt K.H. The World of the First Australians, trans. from English M., 1981
- Cabo V. R. Origin and early history of Australia. M., 1969
- Lockwood D. I am an Aborigine, trans. from English M., 1969
- McConnell W. Myths of Munkan, trans. from English M., 1981
- Rose F. Aborigines of Australia, trans. with him. M., 1981
- Elkin A.P. Indigenous Peoples of Australia, trans. from English M., 1952
- The Cambridge Encyclopeadia of Hunters and Gatherers. Cambridge, 1999 (I.VII, Australia, p.317-371)
- The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Vol.I-II. Canberra, 1994
Links
- //
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
See what “Australian Aborigines” are in other dictionaries:
Indigenous people of a particular area or country (for example, Australian Aborigines in Australia, Maori in New Zealand). According to ancient Roman legends, this was the name ancient tribe, who lived at the foot of the Apennine mountains... Historical Dictionary
Torres Strait Islanders ... Wikipedia
The Australian Frontier Wars were a series of military conflicts between Indigenous Australians and European settlers. The first battle took place in May 1788; Australia was largely conquered by British colonialists by 1830... ... Wikipedia
This article lacks links to sources of information. Information must be verifiable, otherwise it may be questioned and deleted. You can... Wikipedia
Indigenous peoples, aborigines, autochthons, aborigines, the original population of a territory that has preserved traditional life support systems, special forms economic activity, for example, hunting (land, sea), cattle breeding (nomadic cattle breeding... ... Wikipedia
Europeans settled at the end of the 18th century. in Australia, called the local population aborigines from the lat. ab origene - from the beginning. Since then, the word “aboriginal” has meant a native inhabitant, the first settler of the region. Scientists have no idea about the origins of the Australian Aborigines. consensus. Some believe that the Aborigines settled in Australia about 40 thousand years ago, arriving there from Southeast Asia. In 1707, the Englishman James Cook declared the east coast of Australia an English colony.
England began exiling convicts there, and in the 19th century. the exiles were followed by the first immigrants. Colonization was accompanied by the extermination of indigenous people, deprivation of their ancestral lands and displacement into unfavorable areas far from hunting grounds and water sources. The Europeans carried epidemics that decimated the local population, which had not developed immunity to unfamiliar diseases. As a result, approx. 90% of the aborigines died - from hunger, thirst, disease, and also as a result of clashes with the colonialists. Soon, the surviving Aborigines began to be driven into reservations - special settlements in remote desert parts of the continent, where outsiders were not allowed.
Even in population censuses, Aborigines were not counted. Only in 1967, as a result of a popular referendum, the indigenous people were recognized as citizens of the country and received the right to free movement. Some tribes retained their traditional way of life: in an endless search for water and food. But the majority live in cities. As a rule, the natives are very poor. The reason for this is unemployment, lack of the required level of education and professional skills. In the 1980s The aborigines launched a struggle to return the territories taken from them by the colonialists. So, in 1982, the aborigines of the Murray Islands - an archipelago in the Torres Strait separating Australia from Papua New Guinea - filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court Australia. They opposed the principle on the basis of which whites settled Australia in the 18th century - the lands discovered by the colonialists were considered no man's land and became the property of the state that captured them. In 1992, the Supreme Court of Australia considered the claim of the Aboriginal people and recognized their rights to Australian territory.
The Aborigines believe that the world was created by their first ancestors, among whom were people, animals, the sun and the wind. The creation of the world is called by many tribes by the same word as a dream, and the era of creation is known as the “time of dreams.” The Aborigines composed many songs and myths about him. The events of that legendary era are also depicted in rock paintings.
In Australia, 11.5% of the territory is occupied by protected parks. There are more than 2,000 national parks and reserves in the country. Among them national park Nambang, where the main attraction of the country is located - fields of petrified remains of an ancient forest; Northern Territories Wildlife Park; Leamington National Park, etc.
As soon as the Dutch set foot on the shores of Australia, which at that time was the western southern land, they were immediately confronted with representatives of the oldest civilization on the planet- Australian Aborigines.
Indigenous people of the mainland to guests from Europe treated with extreme caution. Especially the aborigines of Australia began to be indignant when curious sailors from Europe frequented the lands of the Green Continent. So who are the Australian Aborigines and what was their way of life?
Typical appearance Australian Aboriginal
One version says that the first inhabitants appeared in Australia approximately 50 thousand years ago.
But some researchers and scientists claim that people lived in Australia and 70 thousand years back, when New Guinea and Tasmania had not yet separated from the mainland.
The first inhabitants of Australia arrived on the Green Continent by sea. Where exactly they immigrated from is unknown to this day.
The way of life of the Aboriginal Australians remained more than forty thousand years unchanged. If Europeans had not begun to explore these remote lands, the indigenous population of Australia for a long time would not know what writing, radio and television are.
The aborigines of the mysterious and magical outback of Australia still adhere to their long-standing traditions and habits. These people can be called real representatives primitive way of life.
The photo shows Aboriginal rituals Australia:
This arid and barren area is currently home to 17% of the Aboriginal people who live in Australia. The largest settlement is 2500 people.
Qualified medical care began to be provided here only since 1928. There are also no educational establishments, and children are taught by radio.
What do the Bushmen of Australia look like?
A dark-skinned man with a lush head of curly hair, convex front part skull, as well as the wide base of the nose - this is exactly what it looks like typical aborigine Australia.
Characteristic physique Bushmen(as the indigenous population of the mainland is called) is quite frail, but at the same time the Bushmen of Australia are athletic and have developed muscles.
Photo Australian Bushmen:
10 % Aboriginal people living in the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia had dark skin and blonde hair. Scientists have long debated whether this is connected with European expeditions to the southern land.
The researchers' conclusion suggests that this seemingly incompatibility between dark skin and light hair is genetic mutation thousand years ago.
Modern Aboriginals Australia (photo):
The Aborigines of Australia are divided into three races. The most dark-skinned indigenous population Australia lives today in the province of North Queensland.
Australian Aboriginal body decoration scarring(photo):
Tallest Aboriginals Australians, whom scientists attribute to the third wave of migrants, live in the north of the mainland. They have a dark coat, and virtually no hair on the head and body.
But the valley of the largest river on the Green Continent, the Murrays, is inhabited by Murray-type indigenous people. Population of average height with thick hair on the body and head, scientists attribute them to the second wave of seafaring migrants.
Photo traditional look Australian Aboriginal weapons boomerang:
Aboriginal language of Australia
Before Europeans arrived on the mainland, the aborigines spoke in 500 adverbs, each language of which was different from the other. Today, each indigenous tribe of Australians has its own unique language.
It is important to know! Mostly, the Aboriginal languages of Australia exist in oral form, since some tribes never mastered writing.
Melodically, these dialects are not similar to any of the African, European or Asian languages. Today linguists say that the Australian Aborigines say in more than two hundred languages.
Aboriginal dancing Australia - imitation of animal habits (photo):
Interesting that almost all Aboriginal Australians speak English.
Aboriginal customs of Australia
Australia's sacred mountain Uluru is main object of worship Bushmen. The indigenous people of Australia say that this rock is a door between worlds.
It is important to know! Scientists claim that the shrine of the indigenous people of Australia is more than six million years old.
This mountain is called differently. So in Europe, Mount Uluru was given the name Ayres or Ayres Rock. Very popular view holidays are excursion tours to this unusual natural phenomenon and a local shrine.
Attention! More than once, tourists who tried to climb to the top of the mountain tragically died. You shouldn’t “flirt” with death in these mysterious places, because it’s not for nothing that customs exist.
Various rituals that were performed thousands of years ago are still practiced today by the indigenous people of Australia at Mount Uluru. Legend has it that climbing to the top will lead to the wrath of spirits and ancestors.
The invention of the boomerang and the traditional Aboriginal didgeridoo pipe
Few people know, but invention of the boomerang owned by Australians. Only real warriors can control it.
This art is taught to tourists on the east coast by indigenous people. in the town of Tzhapukai.
Culture, life and traditions of the indigenous population of Australia Very varied.
So, in the tribes that inhabit the northern regions of the mainland, are popular individual singing with accompaniment percussion instruments. But in the center and southern parts of the Green Continent, group singing is popular.
Interesting that a number of indigenous Australian musical instruments have sacred significance. For example, a magical aboriginal buzzer made of stone and wood, with sacred symbols printed on it. She makes very strange and terrifying sounds.
But the didgeridoo created by nature is spiritual musical bushman tool. The trunk of bamboo or eucalyptus, which is from one to three meters long, eaten inside by termites, is still decorated by the indigenous people of Australia with totemic symbolic images.
It is important to know! For many centuries, the natives of the Green Continent knew about the movements of stars and planets thanks to a stone structure that exactly replicates the famous Stonehenge. It is located on the way from Melbourne to Geelong. Located one hundred huge stone blocks from half a meter to a meter in height indicate exactly the summer and winter solstice, as well as on the days of the equinox.
Aborigines of Australia are the indigenous people of the Green Continent, who keeps traditions to this day, customs and even the way of life of people who lived on the mainland thousands of years ago.
Thanks to their culture, you can learn how people lived in Australia before Europeans arrived on the continent. It must be said that the life of a multinational civilized society significantly different from the way of life of the indigenous people. This is what Australia is all about!
We invite you to watch interesting video about how Australian Aborigines demonstrate ritual dances, spear throwing, ancient musical instrument— didgeridoo:
The Aborigines of Australia are one of the oldest and most distinct racial groups. It was the isolation of the aborigines of the Green Continent, also called the Australian Bushmen, that became the reason that they retained their unique appearance, different from others.
According to geneticists, confirmed by DNA analysis, the indigenous population of Australia remained separate for at least 50 thousand years. Research has provided evidence of its continuity over at least 2,500 generations.
General information
The Australian aborigines, whose photos are presented in the article, belong to a separate, Australian branch of the equatorial (Australian-Negroid) race. According to scientists, this is one of the oldest crops in the whole world. The settlement of the mainland, according to scientific data, occurred between 75 and 50 thousand years ago. Australian Aborigines are descendants of the first modern people who moved here from Africa. They have a lot common features: Well-developed body muscles, dark hair (usually wavy), wide nose, prominent lower face. But among the aborigines there are three individual types. Their representatives, despite all their external similarities, are noticeably different from each other.
Barrinean type
According to scientists, it was the Barrineans who were the first to set foot on the shores of the mainland. They differ from the other two types by their small stature - the result of the so-called reduction. The habitat is predominantly North Queensland.
Murray type
Representatives of this type of Australoid race are visually distinguished by darker skin and developed hair. They mainly live in open spaces (steppes) of Southern and Western Australia and the coast of Eastern Australia. According to one of the theories of the settlement of the continent, called trihybrid, they moved to Australia in the second wave - from the African continent.
Carpentarian type
Mostly distributed in the north and central part of the continent. Its representatives have even darker skin than the Murrays and one of the highest average heights in the world. The hair on the face and body is poorly developed. It is believed that this type of aborigines developed due to the third wave of settlement of Australia.
At the time of the appearance of the first colonizers from Europe on the continent, there were at least 500 Australian Aboriginal tribes. The total population, according to various sources, ranged from 300 thousand to one million people.
Lifestyle
Of course, the majority of the mainland's aborigines have become acquainted with the achievements of civilization. However, many, nevertheless, did not change their ancient habits. Thus, in the central part of the mainland, where at least 17% of the country’s total indigenous population currently lives, there are no large cities or towns. The largest settlement here numbers 2.5 thousand people. There are no schools (children are taught by radio) and medical institutions. It is worth noting that in total, medical care has been provided to the indigenous population of Australia for less than a hundred years - only since 1928.
The basis of the diet of the aborigines, who lead a primitive lifestyle, as thousands of years ago, is the fruits of hunting and gathering - roots, rare plants, wild animals, lizards, and in coastal areas - fish and other seafood. They process the grains they find and fry them into flat cakes over coals. Still, many centuries later, most of the day in remote communities is spent on obtaining food. If necessary, insect larvae are also used.
The boomerang, the most famous weapon of the Australian aborigines, is still used by them for hunting. According to ancient beliefs, only a true warrior, brave at heart, could master the use of a boomerang. This is really not easy, considering that the speed of a launched weapon can reach 80 kilometers per hour.
Consequences of colonization
The development of Australian lands by Europeans, as in most cases, was accompanied by forced assimilation or even destruction of the indigenous population. The Aborigines of Australia, forced out of their lands into specially created reservations, suffered from famine and epidemics. Until the early 1970s, it was considered legal to forcibly remove indigenous children from their families in order to turn them into servants and farm workers. As a result of this policy, the number of Aboriginal people in the early 90s of the twentieth century was only 250 thousand people (only 1.5% of the total population).
Aboriginal people achieved equal rights with other residents of the country only in 1967. Their situation gradually began to improve, for which special programs were developed aimed at preserving cultural heritage and increasing the birth rate. Individual tribes began to move to big cities and settle in them.
However, the consequences of colonization are still felt today. Thus, among prisoners in Australian prisons there are representatives of the indigenous population, although they are small total number, make up about 30%. The average life expectancy of the Aborigines is about 70-75, and the white population is about 80-85 years. They are six times more likely to commit suicide.
Aboriginal children continue to experience racial discrimination in schools. This was stated by about a quarter of those surveyed in a national study on the lives of indigenous people. At the same time, the level of education among Australian aborigines is below average. Thus, at least a third of the adult population cannot read and write, perform arithmetic operations. And in remote communities located in areas where indigenous people live on the mainland, about 60% of children do not have access to school.
Australian Aboriginal language
History has preserved data that by the time travelers from Europe reached the mainland, at least 500 dialects existed here. Moreover, many of them differed from each other as seriously as the languages of the peoples living in different parts Sveta.
Currently, there are about 200 local dialects. Australia is a real paradise for linguists, because, according to them, the melody of the indigenous languages radically distinguishes them from any African, Asian or European. The study is made difficult by the lack of writing among the vast majority of tribes, because many of them created only primitive signs to display the plots of ancient legends and basic calculations (drawings, notches).
Moreover, almost all aborigines own official language countries - English. With such a variety of dialects, this is the only option that allows Australian residents to communicate without problems with each other. Even a special channel for Aboriginal people, opened in 2007 and designed to promote the cultural community of different tribes (National Aboriginal Television of Australia), broadcasts in the language of Shakespeare. By the way, contrary to popular belief, the word “kangaroo” in the Australian Aboriginal language does not mean “I don’t understand.” But more on this later.
- Probably everyone knows the joke about how James Cook, having set foot on the coast of Australia, asked the local residents the name of the animal they saw. In response, he allegedly heard: “Kangaroo!”, which translated means: “I don’t understand!” However, this version has not been confirmed by modern linguistic research. Similar word- “Gangaroo”, used in the language of one of the Australian Aboriginal tribes to designate a kangaroo, translated means “big jumper”.
- In one of the national parks on the east coast of the mainland, the Australian aborigines readily welcome tourists. They are shown, among other things, the art of using a boomerang, and are also taught it to everyone. However, not everyone manages to master this difficult science.
- It turns out that Australia has its own Stonehenge. The stone structure, made up of 100 boulders, was discovered about halfway between Melbourne and Geelong, the second largest city in Victoria. As scientists have found, the location of the stones allowed local residents in ancient times to determine the days of the solstices and equinoxes.
- 10% of Aboriginal people living in the Solomon Islands, which are located northeast of the mainland, have blond hair. The reason is a genetic mutation that is approximately 1000 years old.
Finally
The article provided information about the indigenous population of the Australian continent. Today, a paradoxical situation has arisen here, because on the territory of the state of Australia, which is industrialized and has a fairly high general standard of living, in parallel there exists another world - people who live almost the same way as their very distant ancestors. This is a kind of window into ancient world for everyone who wants to join a unique culture and understand how people lived on Earth tens of thousands of years ago.