Aboriginal Mythology
Aboriginal Mythology: An Overview
Australia, a vast land characterized by rocky, low plateaus and expansive deserts and semi deserts, was originally inhabited by the Aborigines, who first settled in Australia more than 75,000 years ago. Over the course of numerous milenas, the Aborigines developed and spread a unique mythology closely tied to the environment of Australia. Aboriginal religion, much like Aboriginal culture, was majoritively decentralized, in large part due the polytheistic nature of the faith. Still, due to how the Aborigines led a semi nomadic lifestyle, which involved hunting animals and gleaning fruits and other such necessities, Aboriginies mythology is decentralized. Distinct, separate groups, originating from their ancestors who first arrived on the continent, evolved differently over the millennia, resulting in wildly different experiences from different environments, causing different interpretations of deities and myth. Still, this semi nomadic lifestyle permitted the Aborigines to share ideas with other tribes, resulting in a shared religion based on a variety of deities and principles of importance, such as an emphasis on the Australian landscape. These differing tribes, although united under a common faith, gave more importance to some deities than to others, often conflicting about specific details of a deity, such as where they may have originated from. All in all, Aboriginal Mythology encompasses the plethora of deities, myths, legends, and spiritual practices of Australian Aboriginal culture, religion, and lifestyle (“Australian Mythology”).
Land Worship and Foreign Influence
Additionally, Aboriginal myths deal with the formation of the world, apocalyptic and natural disasters such floods and droughts, and a personification of life and death that help characterize the important events. Aboriginal spirituality, or the idea that all objects are living, sentient beings and are endowed with a singular soul, or spirit, that is shared amongst these beings, played a large role in both culture and the landscape, helping the Aborigines understand the formation of the vast array of hills, rivers, rock formations, and plants of Australia (Korff). Effectively, Aboriginal myths enrich Australia's topography with cultural nuance and a deeper, symbolic meaning. In short, some Aboriginal myths explain the origins of the unique land formations, attributing it to both Aboriginal deities and creation. Additionally, these myths allowed the Aborigines to learn about the geography of Australia (“Australian Mythology”).
Aboriginal mythology played a large role in their culture, helping to establish a system of ethics which served to highlight the importance of ritual and worship. Additionally, the Aborigines faced little foreign influence for 75,000 years until, starting in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Europeans colonists began venturing to Australia. Due to this influence, Aboriginal culture has mostly been eradicated from the continent, with the Aborigines making up a measly 3.3 percent of the population (“Profile of Indigenous Australians”). Still, despite this forced decline resulting from foreign influence, the remaining Aborigines, understanding how oral storytelling and the semi nomadic lifestyle that helped spread the culture throughout Australia have become obsolete, are actively attempting to collect and record the vast abundance of myths and legends for future generations (“Australian Mythology”).
The Deities: (Ancestral Beings, Creation Beings, Totemic Beings)
Ancestral Beings
Hundreds, if not thousands of Aboriginal deities were recorded by the Aborigines in songs, art, body paintings, petroglyphs, rock paintings, and spread through stories and oral tradition. The various Aboriginal deities, due to them representing different ideas to various tribes, have many roles that the Aborigines considered of importance, falling into one, or more, of three categories: Creation beings, Ancestral beings, and Totemic beings (Welch).
The term Ancestral beings is often a curtain name for all deities. For example, there are many Ancestral beings, such as Ancestral figures, Ancestral heroes, Dreamtime heroes, Creation Beings, and Totemic beings. The term Ancestral beings directly references deities who are ancestors to the Aboridingal people; deities who built and roamed the initially barren land of Australia, forming the landscape as it is known today. These Ancestral beings, shortly after creation during Dreamtime, took the appearance of the landscape, such as rocks or trees (Welch). For example, Uluru, a dome-shaped rock located in central Australia, is said to have been formed by the deity Adnoartina who takes the form of a gecko lizard. The deity provides an indigenous explanation for the creation of the Australian landmark (Saunders et al., "ULURA").
Adnoartina
Creation Beings
Creation beings are noted as deities majoritively involved in the creation of various subjects, such as the Australian landscape, involving the unique pigments of red, yellow, and white that characterizes the landscape, and the Aborigines themselves (Welch). For example, the creation being, Baiame, originating from south-eastern Australia, created the planet and the people, setting laws in place for his creations to follow (Saunders et al., "BAIAME"). Baiame existed during “Dreamtime,” or the primordial time of creation when the Creation beings set everything into place (Korff). Furthermore, the Aborigines considered dreams themselves to be recollections of Dreamtime, acting as a means of transporting back to Dreamtime (Welch).
Baiame
Totemic Beings
Totemic beings represent the original state of plants and animals during Dreamtime. The Aborigines believed they were derived from totemic beings, providing them a connection to Dreamtime. Totemic beings are often related to creation beings as they are mainly connected to the creation of plants and animals (Welch). In addition, Totemic beings are tied to totemic belief, which is the idea that all subjects, ranging from the Aborigines to the various deities and to nature, are all spiritually and emotionally connected to form one corporate whole (Berndt et al.). Additionally, totems, which represent natural objects, plants, and objects, are used to provide a linkage between the Aborigines and Totemic beings (Welch). Totems were inherited by members of a clan, defining an individual's role and responsibility in a tribe. Furthermore, totems were considered to be descended from Dreamtime heroes (Paulson).
Totem
INCA MYTHOLOGY
In the midst of high mountains and plateaus, sandy deserts, dense, bountiful forests, thousands of rivers, and the tallest mountain on Earth, sitting between the border of China and Nepal, a Chinese mythology, rich in principle and complexity, developed for a time that can be traced back for thousands of years...
CHINESE MYTHOLOGY
In the midst of high mountains and plateaus, sandy deserts, dense, bountiful forests, thousands of rivers, and the tallest mountain on Earth, sitting between the border of China and Nepal, a Chinese mythology, rich in principle and complexity, developed for a time that can be traced back for thousands of years...
