Home > Australian Aborigine
Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. Their ancestors probably arrived in Australia just over 50,000 years ago, although the date remains uncertain. 1 History
1.1 Pre-colonisation
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people are the indigenous (native) people of Australia. At the time of first contact with the European colonists in the late 18th century, most Aborigines were hunter-gatherers with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is at once the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of dreaming. (Also see Aboriginal mythology).
The exact timing of the arrival of the Aborigines' ancestors has been a matter of dispute among archaeologists. The most common view is that their ancestors came from southeast Asia more than 50,000 years ago. This means there have been more than 1250 generations in Australia. The 50,000 BP date is based on a few sites in northern Australia dated using thermoluminescence. A large number of sites have been radiocarbon dated to around 40,000 BP, leading some researchers to doubt the accuracy of the thermoluminescence technique. Thermoluminescence dating of the Jinmium site in the Northern Territory suggested a date of 120,000 BP. Although this result received wide press coverage, it has been seriously questioned by most archaeologists.
The Aboriginal people lived through many climatic changes and adapted successfully to the different environments. There is much debate about the degree to which Aboriginal people modified their environment. One controversy revolves around the role of Aborigines in the extinction of the marsupial megafauna. Some argue that natural climate change killed the megafauna. Others claim that, because the megafauna were large and slow, they were easy prey for Aboriginal hunters. A third possibility is that Aboriginal modification of the environment indirectly led to their extinction.
Aboriginal modification of the environment, particularly through the use of fire, is also controversial. It is well known that Aborigines used fire for a variety of purposes -- to encourage the growth of edible plants and fodder for prey, to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, to make travel easier, to eliminate pests, for ceremonial purposes, and just to "clean up country." There is disagreement, however, about the extent to which Aboriginal burning led to large-scale changes in vegetation patterns.
Despite their reputation as stone-age relics, there is evidence of substantial change in Aboriginal culture over time. Rock painting at several locations in northern Australia has been shown to consist of a sequence of different styles linked to different historical periods. Harry Lourandos has been the leading proponent of the theory that a period of hunter-gatherer intensification occurred between 5000 and 3000 BP. Intensification involved an increase in human manipulation of the environment (for example, the construction of fish traps in VictoriaVictoria State flag ( In detail) Coat of Arms ( In detail) Capital Melbourne Governor HE Mr John Landy Premier Steve Bracks Area — Land — Marine — Total 227 416 km˛ 10 213 km˛ 237 629 km˛ Population (2004) Density 5,012,300 22/km˛ Time zone UTC+10 (except), population growth, an increase in trade between groups, a more elaborate social structure, and other cultural changes. A shift in stone toolA stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. Although stone-tool-dependant cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist. The study of stone tools is often called lithic a technology, involving the development of smaller and more intricate points and scrapers, occurred around this time.
There were a great many different Aboriginal groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure, and languageThe Australian Aboriginal languages are a family of languages; some were spoken prior to the arrival of Europeans in Australia, and the rest are descended linguistically from them. These languages include the following language groups below the level of l (approximately 200 different languages at the time of European contact). These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time. Lifestyles varied a great deal, and the stereotyped image of a proud and naked hunter standing one-legged in the red sand of the central Australian desert cannot be applied across the board. In present-day Victoria, for example, there were two separate communities with an economy based on fish-farming in complex and extensive irrigated pond systems; one on the Murray RiverThe Murray River is Australia's second-longest river in its own right (the longest being its tributary the Darling). The 3370 kilometre long combined Murray-Darling river system drains most of inland Victoria, New South Wales, and southern Queensland. in the state's north, the other in the south-west near HamiltonHamilton is a town of 9000, three hours west of Melbourne. Self described as the "Wool Capital of the World", it boasts the Big Woolbales as a significant tourist attraction. Victorian cities., which traded with other groups from as far away as the MelbourneAlternate meanings: Melbourne (disambiguation Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia, with a population of 3,366,542 (census 2001). The city's name is pronounced "MEL-buhn" ( SAMPA: ["m area.
