Origins of Australian Aboriginal Culture - Essay Example

?Origins of Culture The sense in which the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake exists Like many other societies, the Australian aboriginals have their own myths that are composed of oral literature they traditionally performed. These myths explain fundamental truths about the local landscape of each group of aboriginals. These myths effectively cover the topography of the entire Australian continent with deeper meaning and cultural nuance. They also feed their selected audience with accumulated knowledge and wisdom about the ancestors of Australian aboriginals dating back to time immemorial. Iles (2010) states that the Australian aboriginals believe that the universe has two aspects. These are, the physical world we see and live in, and another world connected to this from which the Dreamtime is derived. The Rainbow Serpent is one common thing in the mythology and art of the aboriginal Australia. This Serpent is a significant dragon in the creation of the mythology of the aboriginals. The term Rainbow Serpent is used when referring to water that is meandering in a snake-like manner across the landscape and the spectrum of color that is produced when water is stricken by sunlight at an appropriate angle relative to the position of the observer (Isaacs 1980). The Rainbow Serpent is seen to be the inhabitant of the permanent waterholes, underground springs, deep billabongs, the rain and other water courses, and that the serpent is in control of the most precious resources of life like oil and water. He is the unpredictable Rainbow Serpent that sometimes vies with the ever-dependable sun whose function is to replenish the stores of water and as he slithers across the landscape, he forms deep channels and gullies that facilitate the collection and distribution of water. The symbol of the Rainbow Serpent is rainbow bridging the earth and the heaven. This gives one of the most significant forms of existence of the rainbow snakes. The Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake also exists in the form of landscapes or physical features. The serpent is believed to have descended from heaven and thus the gullies and rivers were formed as he moved over the face of the earth, giving it form and nourishing it. According to Smyth (1994), the aboriginals describe the journeys of ancestral creations, often giant people or animals as the source of the formation of rivers, waterholes, mountains, plant and animal species and other cultural and natural resources. They came into existence because of the dream journeys of these creatures and their existence in today’s landscape is taken by many indigenous Australian populations as a confirmation of their beliefs about creation. As noted, the rainbow serpent is one of the creatures believe to participated in the dream journeys and hence participated in the creation of features in the earth’s surface. These features are a confirmation of the routes taken by creatures like the Rainbow Serpent and therefore, a confirmation of its existence in the past. The dreaming tracks run for as many as thousand kilometers across the country. One of the physical feature that indicates the existence of the rainbow snake is a mountain range located in the north-east region of Australia. The landscape in this region is a wet tropical forested. The myth linking this mountain range to the existence of the rainbow snake originates from the Djabugay group of aboriginals. Isaacs (1980) explains that according to this myth, the rainbow snake transformed into a mountain range that up to date, can be seen to be lying on his back, looking upwards to the skies over the current day Baron River Gorge. The Rainbow Serpent also exists in the form of other natural events like tides. Existence in the form of tides can be further explained by a story involving two sisters and the snake. In this story, two Wawilak sisters were walking around the sea and before going back, they had incestuous relations with men of their moiety. After this, the younger sister had a baby and afterbirth blood begun flowing and entered a sacred where the Rainbow Serpent or Yurlunggur lived. The Rainbow Serpent belonged to the same moiety as the two sisters and was, therefore, attracted by the smell of blood. He emerged out of his dwelling place, caused a deluge followed by a flood. Afterwards he swallowed the two sisters. The significant part of the story is that since the serpent was attracted and angered by the afterbirth blood, and menstruation onwards, the monsoonal tides are taken to be a symbol of the existence of the Rainbow Serpent. It is believed that when the snake stood erect, water covered the land and vegetation and when he finally lay back, the water disappeared from the land surface. This is rubber stumped by the monsoonal wind flood experienced in Northern Australia. Menstruation is associated with wetness just as would monsoonal seasons. From this, the monsoonal days are taken to be days that the sisters have menstruated and hence the snake is aroused once again and the process of standing causes floods (Isaacs 1980). This is the ecological aspect of the myth and existence of the rainbow serpent. Out of the above myth, the rainbow snake is thought to be the origin of the monsoonal season experienced in Northern Australia. From this version, the snake is associated with the wet season whereas the two Wawilak sisters are associated with the dry season. The pool from which the rainbow serpent comes out of symbolizes tides. This means that whenever tides occur, it is a sign of the emergence of the rainbow serpent and when dry periods are experienced, it is a sign that the rainbow serpent is resting peacefully. A mythical map of Australia indicates thousands of characters that have different importance but one feature about them all is that they connect to the land. Some of these are believed to have originated in specific places and continued to exist there spiritually. Others originate from somewhere and left for other places. Many of the shapes seen in the Australian mythical maps were changing in shape. Some were being transformed into from or into natural species, human beings or natural features like rocks. The common thing among them is that they left something significant in the spiritual essence of the regions noted in their stories. Some of these shapes belonged to the rainbow snake and can be represented features like rocks or natural species in some regions (Radcliffe-Brown, 1926). The fact that the rainbow snake left something spiritual in the regions they appeared or migrated to means that the existence of the rainbow snake can also be found to manifest in the spiritual rituals and beliefs of the aboriginals. The existence of the rainbow snake in the spiritual lives of the aboriginal Australians can be seen among the Murrinh-patha people. This group of people occupy a salty county in Australia and in their myths, they describe Dreamtime that is believed by anthropologists to be equivalent to most of the other significant religious beliefs in the world. These people have a oneness of belief, expression and thought in all aspects of their culture, lives and thoughts because of the continuing influence of their Dreaming. In this aboriginal religion, the religion of the Murrinh-patha people, there is no distinction between material things, spiritual things, mental things and the ideal things. At the same time, no distinction is drawn between profane things and sacred things. To them, all life is sacred, all human actions have moral implication and the meaning of life arises out of this ever-present and eternal dreaming. This symbolizes the continued existence of the rainbow snake among the Murrinh-patha as manifested in their religious beliefs and the way of life. In addition to their religious beliefs, the existence of the rainbow snake among the Murrinh-patha is seen in the myths behind their ceremonies. An example of this is a ceremony performed when young men are being initiated into adulthood. This myth originates from an old woman believed to have swallowed the children left under her care and tried to run as a giant snake. She was followed and the undigested children removed from her body. Cowan (1994) explains that within the myth and its performance, unadorned children must be swallowed first by an ancestral being then regurgitated before being accepted back into the society as young adults with all privileges and rights of young adults. From the discussion of the existence of the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake, we learn that the origins of symbolic culture emerges from the happenings in the environment and patterns of natural happenings like monsoonal seasons. They also emerge from the shapes of physical landforms like mountains or other natural phenomena of the environment like rainbow. Symbols are drawn to express the beliefs attached to these events, features or phenomena. Conclusion The sense of the existence of the Rainbow Serpent among the Australian aboriginals manifests in various forms. These include physical features like mountains, rocks and other natural phenomena like the rainbow. The existence of the rainbow snake in the form of physical features finds its support from the belief that the snake took part in the creation of landscape and that it transformed into some features like rocks or mountains. In some of these communities, the existence of the serpent is manifested in the religious beliefs that guide their way of life and myths behind some ceremonies. Its existence is also manifested through natural happenings like the monsoonal seasons as experienced in the northern parts of Australia. References Cowan James (1994) Myths of the dreaming: interpreting Aboriginal legends. Roseville, N. S. W. Unity Press. Iles Susanne. (2010). The Australian Rainbow Serpent. Online: http://www.squidoo.com/rainbowserpent. Accessed on 4th October, 2011. Isaacs Jennifer. (1980). Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History. Lansdowne Press. Sydney. Radcliffe-Brown Alfred. (1926) “The Rainbow-Serpent Myth of Australia.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. (2) pp 19–25. Smyth Dermot (1994) Understanding Country: The Importance of Land and Sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Societies. Australian Government Publishing. Canberra. Read More