Australian Aboriginal Beliefs and Traditions

The interest in Australian Aboriginal beliefs and traditions increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as European scholars tried to understand the origin and evolution not only of the human species but also of its religion and culture. Australian Aborigines were believed to be in the early stages of this development, representing the dawn of humankind, according to the models of cultural evolution at the time. In remote Australia, so-called wild Aborigines, almost untouched by European civilization, would thus enable scholars to gain a better understanding of how their forebears must have lived tens of thousands of years ago. The term Aborigines denotes this understanding of a people from the origin (ab origine), exemplary for the beginnings or early manifestations of social institutions and cultural forms.

Australian Aborigines were of great importance for social theorizing: Émile Durkheim's work on the elementary forms of religion and Sigmund Freud's idea of the primordial band, for example, were based on contemporary knowledge about indigenous Australians. To this body of literature the books published from 1899 onward by Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen made a major contribution. Because Gillen, a postmaster, had become acquainted with Aborigines in Central Australia, he and Spencer, a Melbourne professor, managed to document their traditions and beliefs in great detail. Spencer and Gillen did so on the basis of first-hand information and even direct observation of a totemic ceremony that would become crucial evidence for Durkheim's theory on social cohesion. Bronislaw Malinowski also grappled with Australian materials on the Aboriginal family. And Alfred Radcliffe-Brown documented and analyzed the intricacies of Aboriginal social organization and the variety of systems of kinship in Australia.

Across Australia an estimated 500 distinct indigenous languages were spoken. With also considerable variation in their habitat, Aboriginal groups differed in lifestyle and cultural practices enough for the continent to encompass many indigenous cultures. Although the perspective is complicated because a great many Aborigines are multilingual, almost all Aborigines share adherence to the general outline of a cosmology.

The Dreaming

The central concept in understanding Aboriginal cosmology is the Dreaming, the mythological, formative era during which the enduring shape of the earth was created, patterns of living were established, and laws for human behavior were set down. Spencer and Gillen introduced the term “the Dream time” for the Aboriginal cosmology. It was their translation of the word alcheringa from the Aranda (now: Arrente) in Central Australia. Although this translation is somewhat misleading, Aborigines have adopted it in speaking in English about their worldview. Most commonly used by Aborigines today are the terms The Dreaming and Dreaming. Another expression that has currency is The Law.

Dreamtime, the Dreaming, and related terms refer to the creation time. According to Aboriginal creation stories, Ancestral Beings reshaped the world in a long distant past. Thus, in contrast to the creation myths of world religions, this was not a creation out of nothing. The world already existed as an inert, amorphous mass of clay or, covered by water, in fluid condition. The powers of the Dreaming emerged from this mass, came to the surface, took human-like shapes, and wandered over the earth. In the process they had adventures, recounted in the creation stories, that were events that molded the landscape, and created nature and culture. Ancestral Beings transformed into animals and other creatures, vegetation, natural features such as rocks and creeks and waterholes, natural forces such as thunder and rain, and visible elements and formations in the sky. The Ancestral Beings gave Aborigines a blueprint for their way of life. According to the [Page 87]creation stories, the Ancestral Beings also installed the major religious ceremonies.

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