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Songlines
A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia which mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dreaming. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional song cycles, stories, dance, and art, and are often the basis of ceremonies. They are a vital part of Aboriginal culture, connecting people to their land. Description The Dreaming, or the Dreamtime, has been described as "a sacred narrative of Creation that is seen as a continuous process that links traditional Aboriginal people to their origins". Ancestors are believed to play a large role in the establishment of sacred sites as they traversed the continent long ago. Animals were created in the Dreaming, and also played a part in creation of the lands and heavenly bodies. Songlines connect places and Creation events, and the ceremonies associated with those places. Oral histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, interested in bringing to light unusual tales. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel ''On the Black Hill'' (1982), while his novel '' Utz'' (1988) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2008 ''The Times'' ranked Chatwin as number 46 on their list of "50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945." Chatwin was born in Sheffield. After completing his secondary education at Marlborough College, he went to work at the age of 18 at Sotheby's in London, where he gained an extensive knowledge of art and eventually ran the auction house's Antiquities and Impressionist Art departments. In 1966 he left Sotheby's to read archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, but he abandoned his studies after two years to pursue a career as a write ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Songlines
''The Songlines'' is a 1987 book written by Bruce Chatwin, combining fiction and non-fiction. Chatwin describes a trip to Australia which he has taken for the express purpose of researching Aboriginal song and its connections to nomadic travel. Discussions with Australians, many of them Indigenous Australians, yield insights into Outback culture, Aboriginal culture and religion, and the Aboriginal land rights movement. Synopsis Chatwin develops his thesis about the primordial nature of Aboriginal song. The writing engages the hard conditions of life for present-day indigenous Australians, while appreciating the art and culture of the people for whom the Songlines are the touchstone of reality. The book's first half chronicles the main character's travels through Outback Australia and his various encounters, while the second half is dedicated to his musings on the nature of man as nomad and settler. Thesis Chatwin asserts that language started as song, and in the aboriginal D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connection To Country
The concept of country, as an identity or descriptive quality, varies widely across the world, although some elements may be common among several groups of people. Rurality One interpretation is the state or character of being rural, regardless of environment. It can be at direct odds with quantitative measures of rurality such as those used by governments for statistical analysis (which are often vague and poorly defined). "Country" in this sense is subjective and often intuitive. It encompasses a broad base of ideas and perceptions that may differ at local, regional or national levels. Social development Identity is often localized within relatively isolated populations which, having distinct traditions of their own, can often be viewed as an outgroup and marginalized by the dominant culture. Contrast between rural and urban realities not only produces measurable differences politically and economically, but also affects populations in terms of social identification. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martu People
The Martu (Mardu) are a grouping of several Aboriginal Australian peoples in the Western Desert cultural bloc. Name The Martu people were originally speakers of various Wati languages in the Western Desert dialect continuum whose identity coalesced after coming into increased contact with one another after the establishment of Jigalong. Since the 1980s the Martu term for person (''mardu'' meaning "one of us") has prevailed among the peoples at Jigalong, Wiluna, Punmu, Parnngurr and Kunawarritji. In 1974 Norman Tindale wrote that the term had been applied to several groups in this area, among them the Kartudjara, and had no tribal significance but simply denoted that the people there had undergone full initiation. Languages The Martu languages belong to the Wati subgroup of the Pama–Nyungan language family and are collectively called Martu Wangka, or "Martu Speak". Many Martu speak more than one language and for many, English is a common second language. Country Their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animist
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Rock (geology), rocks, River, rivers, Weather, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even Word, words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion, as a term for the Belief, belief system of many Indigenous peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Animism focuses on the Metaphysics, metaphysical universe, with a specific focus on the concept of the immaterial soul. Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples, that they ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuṯa / The Olgas (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ) is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluṟu / Ayers Rock, located to the east, and Kata Tjuṯa / The Olgas form the two major landmarks within the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The park is considered sacred to the Aboriginal people of Australia. The 36 domes that make up Kata Tjuṯa / Mount Olga cover an area of are composed of conglomerate, a sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of coarse sandstone. The highest dome, Mount Olga, is above sea level, or approximately above the surrounding plain higher than Uluṟu). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Company captain Willem Joosten van Colster (or Coolsteerdt) sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape Arnhem is named after his ship, the ''Arnhem'', which itself was named after the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands. The area covers about and has an estimated population of 16,000, of whom 12,000 are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Two regions are often distinguished as East Arnhem (Land) and West Arnhem (Land), and North-east Arnhem Land is known to the local Yolŋu people as Miwatj. The region's service hub is Nhulunbuy, east of Darwin, set up in the early 1970s as a mining town for bauxite. Other major population centres are Yirrkala (just outside Nhulunbuy), Gunbalanya (formerly Oenpelli), Ramingining, and Maningrida. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life, while economic anthropology studies human economic behavior. Biological (physical), forensic and medical anthropology study the biological development of humans, the application of biological anthropology in a legal setting and the study of diseases and their impacts on humans over time, respectively. Education Anthropologists usually cover a breadth of topics within anthropology in their undergraduate education and then proceed to specialize in topics of their own choice at the graduate level. In some universities, a qualifying exam serves to test both the breadth and depth of a student's understanding of anthropology; the students who pass are pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Totemic
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the word'' totem itself is an anglicisation of the Ojibwe term (and both the word and beliefs associated with it are part of the Ojibwe language and culture), belief in tutelary spirits and deities is not limited to the Ojibwe people. Similar concepts, under differing names and with variations in beliefs and practices, may be found in a number of cultures worldwide. The term has also been adopted, and at times redefined, by anthropologists and philosophers of different cultures. Contemporary neoshamanic, New Age, and mythopoetic men's movements not otherwise involved in the practice of a traditional, tribal religion have been known to use "totem" terminology for the personal identification with a tutelary spirit or spirit guide. However, this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piers Vitebsky
Piers Vitebsky is an anthropologist and is the Head of Social Science at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, England. Education Vitebsky studied his undergraduate degree in Classics with Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1971. He then went on to take a diploma in Social Anthropology at the Oxford University. In the late seventies he was an affiliated student at the Delhi School of Economics. Eventually he completed his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 1982. Career Since the 1980s, Vitebsky has carried out long-term fieldwork among with the Evens of Siberia, and among shamans and shifting cultivators in tribal India and Sri Lanka. In the Russian Arctic, he was the first westerner since the Revolution to live long-term with an indigenous community. Only after working for several months at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Leningrad was he allowed to fly out to Yakutsk in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AIATSIS
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, publishing and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The institute is a leader in ethical research and the handling of culturally sensitive material'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network (ATSILIRN) Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services', http://atsilirn.aiatsis.gov.au/protocols.php, retrieved 12 March 2015‘'AIATSIS Collection Development Policy 2013 – 2016'’, AIATSIS website, http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/about-us/collection-development-policy.pdf, retrieved 12 March 2015 and holds in its collections many unique and irreplac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
