Approaches to Cultural Diversity - Assignment Example

Approaches to Cultural Diversity Customer inserts his/her surname College August 3, 2011 Introduction The arrival of the whites in Australia synchronized the culture of the aboriginal individuals through numerous ways up to their current situation. This was achieved through a process known as assimilation that was prevalent during times of colonization. In light of this, this paper aims at analyzing various occurrences that shaped modern Australia. To achieve this, the essay has arguably referred to an array of academic literature to support its arguments. Moreover, it has used the simplest language for easier comprehension. Australia was primarily occupied by the aboriginal community that oversaw the realization of their culture. However, the arrival of white, Australia underwent a complete cultural metamorphosis. This implies that the aboriginals slowly abandoned their cultural beliefs and accustomed themselves with the new culture that was introduced by the whites. White Settlement in Australia The term Aboriginal that will be used extensively refers to the native individuals located in any particular geographical region across the world. The 17th Century marked the commencement of the European settlement in Australia during the reign of Governor Arthur Phillip. The settlement was a classic one as the migrants arrived in warships with approximately 800 persons on board. Historians assert that Phillip was behind the settlement of the whites in a place known as Sydney Cove. However, the settlement was aimed at punishing the migrants. With time the aboriginals were easily assimilated into the settlers’ civilization. This was evident as the settlers began to take up land belonging to the natives leading to a conflict of interest where natives argued that the land being taken was solely theirs terming the settlers’ actions as ill-motivated and tantamount to invasion. In light of this, the settlers’ further argued that the aboriginals were backward and needed abrupt civilization. However, within no time, the aborigines led by Pemulwuy, a Botany Bay tribe member, attacked the Governor’s aide prompting the governor to violently respond. In early 1770s, the natives fight over ownership of land was dwindling as the settlers endeavored to spread their ownership to cover almost the whole of Australia fertile lands. As the settlers’ embarked on this journey, some natives got assimilated into the settlers’ culture leaving theirs at ransom. The above description explains in-depth the disparity that led to the white settlement in Australia. In the wake of the 19th Century, the settlers resulted to acquisition of even the unfertile lands in Australia in search of natural minerals such as gold among others (Janeoceania). Indigenous culture (Aboriginal) in Australia The native Australians had a rich culture that defined their ways of living until the white settlement that heavily affected and transformed their culture. History dating back into the 17th century illustrates one of their bush survival techniques such as making fire through the rubbing of two sticks together. Moreover, the aboriginals had a sense of fashion implying that they used certain colors and decorations for particular events to an extent that the decorations were gender motivated. For example, women and men decorated themselves differently. On the other hand, the Aboriginals also observed their dietary habits through the consumption of bush foods such as plants and animals namely; insects, waterfowl and ants. In addition, the women were involved in basketry making large baskets from cane found in the rainforests and other household items. Culture erosion The invasion of Australia by the white settlers led to the slow extinction of the Aboriginal culture and subsequent replacement by the white settlers’ culture. In support of the above sentence, this paper will adequately nail out arguments for this case. According to Gray (2007) the aboriginal Australians saw procreation as not as a result of sexual intercourse. This was because they believed that children were planted into women’s womb through a spiritual method and the primary role of the woman was to carry the pregnancy till birth. This predisposition was attributed to ignorance and the lack of mental ability to reason effectively. In light of this, the natives believed that the man served an important role in child rearing as opposed to the woman. However, research later revealed that in the absence of intercourse the women could not bear spirit children. Nevertheless, the white settlers embarked on knowledge based expedition that aimed at equipping the natives with information about reproductive health although it received obstacles as the natives remained adamant to relinquish their cultural beliefs. The strategies used included the enrollment of aboriginal children into the settlers’ schools to acquire academic excellence and literacy. Lawrence and Davies (2011) assert that the coming of the white settlers immensely contributed to the slow extinction of the Aboriginal culture. In the past, the natives’ primary location was in the bushes where they engaged in bush survivor techniques. They lived in neighborhoods that constituted poorly constructed households made from bush trees. This made the aboriginals live in abject poverty and alienate themselves from modernity. This is because they were deeply rooted into their traditions. However, the settlement of the whites resulted into the construction of schools whereby willing natives sought academic nourishment. Through this initiative, the aboriginals became intellectually viable instruments in society to an extent of being politically empowered. Additionally, the aboriginals also sought the implementation of new architectural designs to replace their tree thatched houses. In this regard, the aboriginals resulted to the construction of decent housing leaving their tainted architectural designs behind. Moreover, this led to the enhancement of unity and integration since they could freely interact with the settlers. The arrival of the white settlers in Australia led to the isolation of the indigenous native culture and the subsequent quick assimilation into the whites’ culture. According to Baumann (2006) as the white settlers traversed the country in search of fertile lands to farm, they displaced the natives into the shores thus creating a poor native generation as the settlers sought economic development. In light of this, they employed the Aboriginals to their farms to work as laborers. However, the aboriginals were not allowed to speak their languages or even pay tribute to their ceremonies. For example, they were discouraged from observing cultural events in their calendars. This made them forget their culture slowly by slowly and thus got assimilated into the white culture. In the bushes, where they spent most of their time, the aboriginals did not wear clothes and only used straps to cover their genitals. This was a culture that they had practiced since time immemorial until the arrival of the white settlers. As time progressed they interacted with the whites who endeavored to assimilate them into their culture. This is because they viewed the aboriginal culture as barbaric and uncivilized. To realize this, the aboriginals resulted to the wearing of clothes to cover their nudity. In light of this, they were forced to wear European clothes and abandon their adage fashion cultures. As a result, the aboriginals changed not only their culture but also their behaviors. This meant a complete overhaul of their traditions. For example, they started to drink alcohol and engage in criminal activities. The contact of the aboriginals and the settler gave rise to the Aboriginal English dialect that enabled the natives to effectively communicate with the settlers whom they worked for in their farms. The acquisition of the dialect negatively impacted the further realization of the aboriginal language. However, it’s worth noting that there are distinct characteristics of the native English and the settlers’ language. For example, the natives refer to their uncles sons as cousin brother whereas the settler English refers to them as cousins. In addition, the aboriginals practiced a communist culture that propagated the pluralist ideology. This implies that the fortunes were shared amongst themselves meaning that generosity was a societal value. However, the arrival of the white settlers isolated the ideology and introduced a capitalist culture whereby possessions were individually owned. In light of this, the natives alienated their communist practices and embraced the capitalist practices. This served as a critical ingredient to their cultural loss. Religion Religion was another avenue that the white settlers aimed at using to assimilate the aboriginal individuals. Whereas land was sacred for the aboriginals, the white settlers thought it otherwise and began to build churches as a means to sink the natives into Christianity. This arguably affected the aboriginals’ spiritual backgrounds as they were forced to leave their past sacred lives in a bid to acquire goodies from the settlers as incentives. “The settlers thought European life to be superior to any other and that by establishing these missions, Aboriginal people would learn to live like Europeans and worship their Christian God” (Crawford 2003). Land acquisition by white settlers The acquisition of land by the white settlers played a fundamental role in the deaths of the aboriginals in Australia. This was as a result of malnourishment occasioned by lack of foods as the settlers were gradually taking the land meant for the natives for their own selfish interests. In this regard, the malnourishment propelled aboriginal deaths thus reducing their numbers drastically. As a result, their once dominant culture further dwindled into extinction. Moreover, the arrival of the settlers signaled the entry of diseases into Australia leading to the death of natives from the diseases largely because they lacked immunity. Education Education was a new phenomenon to be introduced into the aboriginal society that heavily relied on traditional methods of living such as bush hunting. In light of this, the settlement of white immigrants in Australia shaped the inculcation of the literacy culture. For example, aboriginal children were greatly encouraged to seek intellectual health through the attendance of classes in the settler schools. As a result, their knowledge was increased tremendously and began to reason like the settlers and slowly acquitting themselves with their culture. This was because the settlers discouraged the use of native languages in the schools and championed for the inclusion of the English language. In this regard, the indigenous culture in Australia continued to break as the older generation was swept away and the realization of a new generation that toed the line of the settlers. This included the absorption of the children into Christianity at the expense of their cultures. The settlers termed the religious cultures practiced by the aboriginals as retrogressive and an impediment to development (Welsh 2008). The settlement of the whites in Australia was instrumental for the introduction of newer foods and subsequent withdrawal of archaic practices. This implies that the coming of the European settlers changed the eating habits of the aboriginals. In earlier times, the aboriginals consumed wild plants and animals for their existence such as wild crows. However, this gradually changed and they resulted to foods that were introduced by the settlers thus ending up as their ideal staple foods. These turn of events made the indigenous eating culture dealt away with. Additionally, since the white settlement in Australia, the nomadic culture aligned to the aboriginal people soon rested on its deathbed and the resultant factor involved the homestead approach to living as the aboriginals were concentrated into one locality since the whites had acquired considerable potions of land (Jupp 2001). Change in economic culture Based on an economic culture that relied on hunting, seed gathering and fishing, the arrival of the white settlers brought with it change of tactic. This is arguably a change of tactic for the cultural predisposition. The coming of the settlers sought to change the aboriginal economic culture and result to the use of currencies and pay as you work schedule. Moreover, droughts and famine formed a platform for the realization that the spirits were annoyed with their activities. However, this cultural notion was subverted and replaced with a meteorological explanations that argued that the droughts were occasioned by poor techniques as the cutting down of trees in forests and subsequent poor ecological behaviors. Conclusion Cultural transformation can be either positive or negative. In this case, the change of the culture of the aboriginals and acquisition of the new one propelled by the whites augments positive development and led to civilization. As noted, the entry of white settlers positively changed the lives of the aboriginals and thus the natives embraced change, a critical reflection that change is inevitable. The essay has adequately established that Australia was predominately habited by the aboriginal community but underwent considerable change with the coming of the white settlers. Without fear of contradiction, therefore, it is ideally fundamental to point out that the arrival of the white settlers contributed to the development of the modern day Australia. In conclusion, the paper has logically explained that the current situation in Australia dates back into the seventeenth century and spiraled downwards to its current form. It has shown that colonization of the mind is a critical recipe for development. List of References Baumann, A. (2006). Traditional Aboriginal Culture, Norderstedt, Germany: Druck and Bindung Crawford, J. (2003). Australian Aboriginal culture, Australia: R.I.C Publications Gray, G. (2007). A cautious silence: the politics of Australian anthropology, Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press Janeocenia. (n.d). Aborigines and white settlers: the breaking down of the aboriginal society. Retrieved on 26 July 2011 from http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_aboriginal_whitesettlers/index1.htm Jupp, J. (2001). The Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins, Cambridge: Cambridge UP Lawrence, S, and Davies, P. (2011). An Archaeology of Australia since 1788, NY: Springer Salzman, M, and Halloran, M. (n.d). Culture Trauma and Recovery. Retrieved on 26 July, 2011 from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/psy/aw/Salzman%20&%20Halloran.pdf Welsh, F. (2008). Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land, NY: Overlook Press Read More