When modern white man contacts a primitive culture there is usually a negative outcome. Primitive cultures are in more ways more complex and symbolic than our own. Until we realize that they to deserve to live the way they want, we will take down and destroy many more valuable primitive cultures. On July 23, 1770 an English seaman accidentally stumbled upon a remote group of people living in Australia. The English man described them as "stone age hunters."(Severin, 41) He discovered these people when the ship he was sailing on, the Endeavor was beached for repairs, on the eastern coast of Australia. The sailor described these unusual people of a slender build with long thin arms. They had delicately formed hands and feet. Their hair was worn long and their faces slightly resembled that of the Europeans.

Previously there had been such reports of these Australian natives ever since the Dutch discovered land south in Australia in the late 1700’s. The Dutch descriptions of the natives were very unflattering. William Dampier of the Dutch twice had come into contact with the northern coast of Australia. He reported "inhabitants of this country are the most miserable people in the world."(Severin, 42) Some Anthropologists believe that the Aborigines came to Australia 50,000 years ago. Australia and New Guinea formed a land bridge. The people were then able to move over into Australia. At first they occupied the fertile coastline and later moved to the dry inland regions. Still, another opinion of Anthropologists is that the aborigines traveled by sea from Asia. They sailed in canoes and rafts, the earliest known boats in the world. Europeans first arrived in Australia when there were over 250 Aboriginal cultures. Each culture had its own language. The natives were called "aboriginal" meaning a people who lived in a place from the earliest known time, by the Europeans.

The Europeans had many mistaken beliefs about the Aborigines. They thought of them as uncivilized because they did not wear much clothing and did not live in standard houses. The Europeans thought that their culture was superior to any other. When the Europeans came to Australia, they did not come alone. They brought along with them many diseases that the Aboriginal people had never come in contact with before. Thousands died from the common cold, small pox, and tuberculosis, all introduced by the Europeans. The disease and violent death helped to eradicate the Tasmanian Aborigines. Not only did these Europeans kill and bring fatal diseases, they robbed the Aborigines as well. They took from them physical resources and robbed them of their land. The Europeans also ruined the spiritual past, present, and future of the tribes. Being tied to tribal territories by a strong spirit, they are forced to accept a new role in white man’s world.(Brian, 41)

The religion of the Aborigines is rather simple and complex at the same time. The basis of all Aboriginal religion is dreaming. Dreaming explains how the landscape, animals, plants, and people were creates. It is kept alive through ceremonies, songs and learning. It helps to give the Aborigines knowledge of the past, stability in the present, and security in the future.(Holder, 7)

Initially it was thought that there was no sun, or living creatures. Under the ground however there were thought to be ancestral beings sleeping. These beings woke up and saw that there was no light. They then created the sun. The sun’s rays warmed the earth. The ancestors who created all this could be in the form of people, animals, plants, rain, clouds and stars. They all behaved as humans.

There are things that link the people and the history of their land together, they are called dreaming tracks. These were paths chosen by the ancestors, such as the great distance they traveled, where they fought, and hunted. The Aborigines believe that they were created by the ancestors from the land itself. They believe that they have been in Australia from the very beginning.

Each person is believed to have been born with their own dreaming or totem. Dreamtime as they call it, is a time of creation. It is a present day link to the spiritual world. It is said that if a person loses that link they have lost their soul, or dreaming.

As in other primitive tribes the Aborigines have strict views on nature. They think that the whole land is sacred. The need for churches or priests is absent. Everyone has sacred ceremonies, songs, and dreaming that is personal. The old Aboriginal saying goes: "We don’t own the land, the land owns us," they consider themselves to be merely custodians of the land.(Davidson, 189)

There is a basic and constant theme that surround the Aboriginal way of life, it is: sharing, caring, and responsibility. The best skill for a child to learn is how to behave toward everyone that they may happen to meet. This skill is a major part of the kinship system. These kinship systems help to organize the society in a very orderly fashion.

The gaining of food is done in two ways, hunting and gathering. Men hunt with spears and boomerangs. Out of respect for nature they kill only enough to feed their family or clan. Gathering of the food is done by the women. Their work is heavily relied upon. Until old enough to hunt with the men the young boys help to gather with the women. To maintain closeness with nature the Aborigines tried their best to protect nature. They did not dig, plant, or harvest. They conserved nature so that there would always be a supply of food and water.

The shelter these people lived varied. They move every season and their homes depend on where they are living at that present moment. In the hot, dry, grasslands, they live in grass windbreaks to keep sheltered from the sun. In the rainy north they have huts built on stilts. And in the cold areas the huts are constructed out of rocks or branches.

Where you live depends on your territory. Each tribe had their own territory, called ngura. It was given to them by their ancestors. This territory could not be bought, sold, lost, or bartered. (Holder, 16) In each territory there were scattered signs left by the ancestors. The men were expected to take care of these sites.

There are many Aboriginal tribes. Each speaks a different language and has a different name. A few that still exist are: Pitijantjatara, Yolngu, Lardil, Tiwi, Aranda, Pintupi, Wa;pri, and the Cadigal.(Holder, 14) There used to exist over 500 different tribes and languages. Today there are only 200 spoken in the modern tribes. The Aborigines have no written language. They must memorize everything. They are able to read a rock, bark, or body painting as if it were a book. Children learn to communicate by watching the elders participate in ceremonies and rituals.

Rituals are an important part of Aboriginal life. At the campfire the elders and fully initiated men sit on one side. Children have their own position around the campfire. When the men come back from hunting, they dance about what happened that day.

After the Aborigines were conquered by the Europeans the were considered a nuisance. The Europeans wanted to develop Australia as a country. To help that process go faster they set up reservations for the Aborigines to live on. The government said that the reservations were for their own protection. But, on these reservations the Aborigines started drinking and soon it got out of hand. Oddly enough the whites were the ones to introduce alcohol to them. The whites thought that the Aborigines were dying out, so they thought that keeping them on reservations would confine them until that happened. On these reservations the people had no rights. Their lives were controlled by a white manager. The people there needed to get his permission to get married, work, even open a letter. If they did work the manager got all the money and at his discretion distributed food, blankets, and pocket money. The outcome of the reservations was not positive. Many died of hunger, disease, and a broken heart. The Aborigines knew that the government was pushing them away into undesirable land. They compared the reservations to concentration camps.

It is clear that contact between modern white man and primitive man is almost always disastrous. White men are greedy and do not look upon the primitive people with an open mind. They believe their way to be best way for everybody. They probably will never understand the point of view of the primitive man. Until white man can accept that his way is not right for everyone he will continue to destroy important cultures of great knowledge and beliefs for the sake of his advancement.

Works Cited

Brian, Robert. The Last Primitive Peoples. New York: Crown Publishers, 1976.

Davidson, Art. Endangered Peoples. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1993.

Holder, Robyn. Aborigines of Australia. Vero Beach: Rorke Publications, Inc., 1987.

Severin, Timothy. Vanishing Primitive Man. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co.,