Discuss the Aboriginal people's unique relationship to the landscape.

Subject  > History Term Papers  > Australian History

Australian Aboriginal culture is complex and extraordinarily diverse. It is one of the world's longest surviving cultures. There were over 500 different clan groups or 'nations' around the continent, many with distinctive cultures and beliefs. Hundreds of languages and dialects existed (although many are now extinct), as well as a variety of different customs and rituals, art forms, styles of painting, forms of food, and hunting habits. Land is fundamental to the well-being of Aboriginal people. The relationship between a clan and its territory involves certain rights, such as the right to use the land and its products. With these rights comes a duty to tend the land through the performance of ceremonies. Individuals within the clan also have special relationships with ...

... of society, the rules for social behavior and the ceremonies performed in order to maintain the life of the land. It governed the way people lived and how they should behave. Those who did not follow the rules were punished. The Dreamtime or Dreaming is often used to describe the time when the earth and humans and animals were created. What is certain is that Ancestor Spirits came to Earth in human and other forms and the land, the plants and animals were given their form as we know them today. These Spirits also established relationships between groups and individuals, (whether people or animals) and where they traveled across the land, or came to a halt,

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