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Landscapes, Rock-Art and the Dreaming: An Archaeology of Preunderstanding
The apparent timelessness of the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia has long mystified European observers, conjuring images of an ancient people in harmony with their surroundings. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the Dreaming's historical antiquity has never been explored by archaeologists. In this book, Bruno David examines the archaeological evidence for Dreaming-mediated places, rituals and symbolism. What emerges is not a static culture, but a mode of conceiving the world that emerged in its recognizable form only about 1000 years ago. This is a world of what the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer has called pre-understanding, a condition of knowledge that shapes one's experience of the world. By tracing through time the archaeological visibility of one well known mode of pre-understanding - the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia - the author argues that it is possible to scientifically explore an archaeology of pre-understanding; of body and mind, identity and Being-in-the-world.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
13 people want to read
About the author
Bruno David
76 books4 followersBruno David est un naturaliste français spécialisé en paléontologie et en sciences de l’évolution et de la biodiversité. Depuis 2015, il est président du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN).
Il a été chercheur au CNRS et directeur de l’unité Biogéosciences à l’Université de Bourgogne. Paléontologue et biologiste marin, ses recherches l’ont conduit à explorer l’évolution de la biodiversité à partir de modèles actuels comme fossiles. Bruno David a participé à plusieurs grandes missions océanographiques, notamment dans l’Océan Austral, la mer des Caraïbes et dans le Pacifique avec le submersible Nautile.
Il a été chercheur au CNRS et directeur de l’unité Biogéosciences à l’Université de Bourgogne. Paléontologue et biologiste marin, ses recherches l’ont conduit à explorer l’évolution de la biodiversité à partir de modèles actuels comme fossiles. Bruno David a participé à plusieurs grandes missions océanographiques, notamment dans l’Océan Austral, la mer des Caraïbes et dans le Pacifique avec le submersible Nautile.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 10, 2012
I found this book in our local remainders shop for £6, when I checked amazon it was selling new for 100 and used for 60 so I thought I'd buy it cause even if I hated it I could sell it for a huge profit. Thankfully I didn't hate it.
I thought it was a very interesting look at Australian Aboriginal culture and religion. While I've read mythology books about the Dreaming before I'd not read any academic texts. Despite that I was able to follow along the different arguments and ideas that David put forth as he gave lots of background and theory to his arguments and points. As a historian and not an archaeologist I wasn't able to judge the methodology used but it seemed quite balanced. The historical arguments at least were all familiar to me and seemed quite sound. While he used a lot of what I call "post modern terminology" (there was actually a subheading called subverting the dominant paradigm). He did it in such a way that you could still understand what he was talking about and I found myself agreeing with many of the points he raised.
His theory behind the book that the idea of the Dreaming as this timeless religious idea and the idea that the religion and the aborigine culture remaining unchanged for thousands of years grew out of the racist assumptions of the past that as they used stone tools they must just be like the stone age people from Europe and must have remained in a static state for the intervening time. He went to look at different archaeological evidence to challenge this preconception, pointing out it's racist origins and find out how much validity to this idea there was.
David examined ritual practices, cave art, beliefs about certain areas, population centres and food sources as different ways of assessing these ideas. He found that there were distinct periods were there was noticable change. That while still very old, in some cases several thousand years, there was not a "timelessness" to the past. But rather there were definite changes, growth periods, and changes in both belief and practice that could be shown. One of the most interesting examples was of an area that was considered unsafe to live in because of religious beliefs from the dreaming figures that occupied it but that had been a source of habitation up until about 600 years ago.
This was not a book that went into detail about the Australian Aboriginal culture, though there was quite a lot that was covered including gender relations, religion, work, rituals, art, food to name a few. But when given these were used to look at how they were now in relation to how they had changed.
I found this book very interesting, not only because I learned much more about Aboriginal culture but also from a theory point of view about the way we view history and in particular the history and religion of other cultures. I'm very glad I found it.
I thought it was a very interesting look at Australian Aboriginal culture and religion. While I've read mythology books about the Dreaming before I'd not read any academic texts. Despite that I was able to follow along the different arguments and ideas that David put forth as he gave lots of background and theory to his arguments and points. As a historian and not an archaeologist I wasn't able to judge the methodology used but it seemed quite balanced. The historical arguments at least were all familiar to me and seemed quite sound. While he used a lot of what I call "post modern terminology" (there was actually a subheading called subverting the dominant paradigm). He did it in such a way that you could still understand what he was talking about and I found myself agreeing with many of the points he raised.
His theory behind the book that the idea of the Dreaming as this timeless religious idea and the idea that the religion and the aborigine culture remaining unchanged for thousands of years grew out of the racist assumptions of the past that as they used stone tools they must just be like the stone age people from Europe and must have remained in a static state for the intervening time. He went to look at different archaeological evidence to challenge this preconception, pointing out it's racist origins and find out how much validity to this idea there was.
David examined ritual practices, cave art, beliefs about certain areas, population centres and food sources as different ways of assessing these ideas. He found that there were distinct periods were there was noticable change. That while still very old, in some cases several thousand years, there was not a "timelessness" to the past. But rather there were definite changes, growth periods, and changes in both belief and practice that could be shown. One of the most interesting examples was of an area that was considered unsafe to live in because of religious beliefs from the dreaming figures that occupied it but that had been a source of habitation up until about 600 years ago.
This was not a book that went into detail about the Australian Aboriginal culture, though there was quite a lot that was covered including gender relations, religion, work, rituals, art, food to name a few. But when given these were used to look at how they were now in relation to how they had changed.
I found this book very interesting, not only because I learned much more about Aboriginal culture but also from a theory point of view about the way we view history and in particular the history and religion of other cultures. I'm very glad I found it.
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