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Mua People
Mua people (Mualgal) alternatively the Moa, are an indigenous Australian Torres Strait Island people based on Moa (Banks Island). According to Alfred Cort Haddon their lifestyle, culture, myths and kinship networks overlapped closely with those of the Kaurareg on neighbouring Muralag, while also forming an integral part, linguistically and culturally, with all Western and Central Island peoples of Torres Strait. Language They speak a dialect of Kalaw Lagaw Ya of the Pama-Nyungan language family. Mythology According to the Mua, fire was brought to the island by ''Waleku'', the frilled-necked lizard '' augadh'' (totem), which had travelled up to Mawatta in Papua to get the fire. On death, one became a , a potentially dangerous spirit because it had not yet left for ''Kibukuth'' "Horizon's End", the world of the ancestral spirits over the western horizon. Then, with a community death "festival", the ''markai thaay'' (now called the ''Kulagudpudai'' "Tombstone Opening", the , env ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common; 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Australian Census, representing 3.2% of the total population of Australia. Of these indigenous Australians, 91.4% identified as Aboriginal; 4.2% identified as Torres Strait Islander; while 4.4% identified with both groups. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parrotfish
Parrotfishes are a group of about 90 fish species regarded as a Family (biology), family (Scaridae), or a subfamily (Scarinae) of the wrasses. With about 95 species, this group's largest species richness is in the Indo-Pacific. They are found in coral reefs, rocky coasts, and seagrass beds, and can play a significant role in bioerosion. Description Parrotfish are named for their dentition, which is distinct from other fish, including other labrids. Their numerous teeth are arranged in a tightly packed mosaic on the external surface of their jaw bones, forming a parrot-like beak with which they rasp algae from coral and other rocky substrates (which contributes to the process of bioerosion). Maximum sizes vary within the family, with the majority of species reaching in length. However, a few species reach lengths in excess of , and the green humphead parrotfish can reach up to . The smallest species is the Cryptotomus roseus, bluelip parrotfish (''Cryptotomus roseus''), which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammerhead Shark
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a cephalofoil. Most hammerhead species are placed in the genus ''Sphyrna'', while the winghead shark is placed in its own genus, ''Eusphyra''. Many different, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, functions have been postulated for the cephalofoil, including sensory reception, manoeuvering, and prey manipulation. The cephalofoil gives the shark superior binocular vision and depth perception. Hammerheads are found worldwide in warmer waters along coastlines and continental shelves. Unlike most sharks, some hammerhead species usually swim in Shoaling and schooling, schools during the day, becoming solitary hunters at night. Description The known species range from in length and weigh from . One specimen caught off the Florida coast in 1906 weighed over . They are u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Shovelnose Ray
The eastern shovelnose ray (''Aptychotrema rostrata'') is a species of guitarfish in the family Rhinobatidae of order Rhinopristiformes. The species is endemic to the east coast of Australia and inhabits subtropical and temperate waters from southern Queensland to southern New South Wales. The eastern shovelnose ray is a small to medium size guitarfish reaching total lengths of . Recent studies suggest the species may have trichromatic colour vision due to the discovery of three spectrally distinct cone visual pigments in the retinae. The eastern shovelnose ray expresses a difference in tooth and jaw structure according to sex, with males developing a more pronounced lower jaw, longer and sharper teeth, and greater jaw strength to enable males to grip a female's fin during mating. The diet of the eastern shovelnose ray consists predominantly of fish, molluscs and benthic invertebrates. Shovelnose rays are suction-crushing feeders and their teeth structure and shape enables them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dugong
The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (''Hydrodamalis gigas''), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. The dugong is the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of some 40 countries and territories throughout the Indo-West Pacific. The dugong is largely dependent on seagrass communities for subsistence and is thus restricted to the coastal habitats which support seagrass meadows, with the largest dugong concentrations typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels, the waters of large inshore islands and inter-reefal waters. The northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay are believed to be the dugong's contemporary stronghold. Like all modern sirenians, the dugong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Oyster
Rock oysters are true oysters of the genus ''Saccostrea'', belonging to the subfamily Saccostreinae of the family Ostreidae . MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Saccostrea Dollfus & Dautzenberg, 1920. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138300 on 2022-04-27 The best-known species is the Sydney rock oyster (''Saccostrea glomerata''). Species The World Register of Marine Species lists these species: * '' Saccostrea circumsuta'' (Gould, 1850) * ''Saccostrea cucullata ''Saccostrea cucullata'', the hooded oyster or Natal rock oyster, is a species of rock oyster found mainly in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. It was first described by the Czech mineralogist, metallurgist, and malacologist Ignaz von Born in 1778. De ...'' (Born, 1778) – hooded oyster * '' Saccostrea echinata'' (Quoy & Gaimard, 1835) – tropical black-lip rock oyster * '' Saccostrea glomerata'' (Gould, 1850) - Sydney rock oyster * '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moiety (kinship)
In the anthropological study of kinship, a moiety () is a descent group that coexists with only one other descent group within a society. In such cases, the community usually has unilineal descent (either Patrilineality, patri- or Matrilineality, matrilineal) so that any individual belongs to one of the two moiety groups by birth, and all marriages take place between members of opposite moieties. It is an exogamous clan, clan system with only two clans. In the case of a patrilineal descent system, one can interpret a moiety system as one in which women are exchanged between the two moieties. Moiety societies operate particularly among the indigenous peoples of Indigenous peoples of the Americas , North America and Australian Aboriginal kinship, Australia (see Australian Aboriginal kinship for details of Aboriginal moieties). White, I. (1981). "Generation moieties in Australia: structural, social and ritual implications". ''Oceania'', 6–27. References Further reading * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Thompson (castaway)
Barbara Crawford Thompson (1831–1912) was a Scottish woman who, as a teenaged girl, survived a shipwreck in the Torres Strait Islands of Australia and spent five years living with the local Kaurareg people. She was possibly the sole survivor of the November 1844 wreck of the cutter ''America'', which ran onto Madjii Reef at Horn Island in Endeavour Strait near Cape York, Queensland. Early life She was born Barbara Crawford in Dundee, Scotland. She emigrated with her family to New South Wales on the immigrant ship '' John Barry'' which reached Sydney on 13 July 1837. The occupation of her father Charles Crawford was given as tinsmith. Shipwreck At the time of the shipwreck, Barbara Crawford Thompson had lived for twenty months in Brisbane with her lover Captain William Thompson as his ''de facto'' wife. The cutter ''America'' left Moreton Bay to salvage whale oil from the wreck of a whaler lost on the Bampton Shoal. Thompson is presumed to have died while trying to swim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as "shamanic" have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. In the 20th century, non-Indigenous Westerners involved in countercultural movements, such as hippies and the New Age created modern magicoreligious practices influenced by their ideas of various Indigenous religions, creating what has been ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shapeshifter
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. The idea of shape-shifting is in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the ''Iliad''. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Folklore and mythology Popular shape-shifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchadhari naag and ichchadhari naagin (shape-shifting cobras) of India, the huli jing of East Asia (including the Japanese ''kitsune'' and Korean ''kumiho''), and the gods, goddesses, and demons and demonesses like succubus and incubus and other numerous mythologies, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerontocracy
A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest the holders of the most power. Those holding the most power may not be in formal leadership positions, but often dominate those who are. In a simplified definition, a gerontocracy is a society where leadership is reserved for elders. Although the idea of the elderly holding power exists in many cultures, the gerontocracy has its western roots in ancient Greece. Plato famously stated that "it is for the elder man to rule and for the younger to submit". One example of the ancient Greek gerontocracy can be seen in the city state of Sparta, which was ruled by a ''Gerousia'', a council made up of members who were at least 60 years old and who served for life. In political systems Elders had leadership roles in many tribal societies. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lactation
Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process naturally occurs with all sexually mature female mammals, although it may predate mammals. The process of feeding milk in all animals (including humans) is called ''nursing'', and in humans it is also called ''breastfeeding''. Newborn infants often produce some milk from their own breast tissue, known colloquially as witch's milk. In most species, lactation is a sign that the female has been pregnant at some point in her life, although it can happen without pregnancy. Nearly every species of mammal has nipples; except for monotremes, egg-laying mammals, which instead release milk through ducts in the abdomen. In only one species of mammal, the Dayak fruit bat from Southeast Asia, is milk production a normal male function. ''Galactopoiesis'' is the maintenance of milk production. This stage requires prolactin. Oxytocin is critical for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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