Australian Aborigines
Culture Anthropology
Raquel Robles
Instructor Shaun Sullivan
July 16, 2012
Australian Aborigines are foraging cultures that have lived around more than 40,000 years ago. Some of the scientist believed that this group of people lived around and migrated from the ice age. Australian aborigines are a foraging culture and a very interesting past. A foraging culture is a society that is hunting, fishing, and gathering of plant matter (Nowak.B, 2010). In this type of culture they have a type of economy called Subsidence economy which means they produce enough foods for survival. The location of the Australian aborigines is in the island of Australia called Torres Strait islands. This is their primary location. There are no records if they stated living in these islands but it are believed they” migrated from south East Asian countries like India and then they are numerous groups under Aboriginal term.”(Resture J.2002-2010) “In the Australian census in 2011 the population of the Australian aborigines were only 2.6 percent out of the normal population of the Australia is around 21,507,717.00 the entire population of Australia”. (Australian bureau Statistics) Australian aborigines live in family groups. The family groups are around 6 to 10 people. Others groups can be reached around 400 groups. These groups were called bands and it was to build in family that had members like fathers, uncles and brothers and sister and grandfathers that were fathers and father. Some of their wives were called grandmothers; they were also considering their uncles as the child’s father. They have one leader that decides the settlement and any disputes that occur in his family. "This leader was a named Headman”. (Resture J 2002-2010). The elders were considered wise due to they give advices and the dreamtime they follow stories of legends and heroes and heroines and they establish their laws based on these stories. The group has no central government but they had some leaders to direct their paths but not to be controlled from anybody. The Australian aborigines have a special kinship in their society when it comes to how they act, think and live. An Australian aborigine culture is one of the intresting part of them is their belief in dreamtime. A special belief that is not religion but is considered spiritual. A dreamtime is a reflection how people should behave based on stories that included morals and build some authority. (Nowark B, Larid 2010). Dreamtime stories have a great importance in their belief because they talk about their ancestors and they used animal kinship to determine when they should go if they can’t find enough supplies or to move in a different settlement. In addition these tracks were led by songs and different characters in these stories provided the law and, morals they needed to be followed. The laws that needed to be followed were not only from the past but to establish it in the present time and in the future. Some of these laws included breaches of acceptable behavior such as rape, murder or stealing. The Australian aborigines had a kinship with animal’s plants and birds. They use these animals from their dreamtime belief that allow them to use an animal has a symbol for family, deeds or a belief to stay away from crime or any evil thinking they might occur. For example they use a kangaroo picture to establish as a friend or brother that was very reluctant to kill and to create awareness to the kangaroo population to grow higher because these type of animals they are scared for them, and they do ceremonies to worship these type of animals so they will be plenty of kangaroos.
In my society that I lived in right now have some characteristic of the Australian aborigine’s culture but the way of how I act think and live are very different from them. There are some behaviors that impact my daily life with some of their thinking and beliefs. In my society when it comes to family and
