Frank wrote on Mar 10
th, 2017 at 6:26pm:
Auggie wrote on Mar 9
th, 2017 at 8:45pm:
Gordon wrote on Mar 9
th, 2017 at 8:41pm:
Aboriginal culture is one of the least developed on earth.
Why is so hard to accept this while at the same time accepting they are people who deserve to have their hopes and dreams fulfilled and live with dignity like everyone else? Why do we needs this ridiculous charade to pretend they are something they are not.
I agree that there are different levels of complexity. The Indigenous Peoples of Australia had a less complex civilization than others. I think this is due to the fact that they didn't need to develop complexity.
Why didn't they? Under what circumstances is it preferable to remain stone age?
Probably a number of reasons they didn't develop a more "complex" society.
The Australian continent lacked beasts of burden and a high yield agricultural crop.
North and South American civilisations were built around corn, Asia had rice and Europe and North Africa had wheat.
It's possible that aboriginal people brought with them some form of crop when they first entered Australia, after all at that time they would of been the most advanced humans on the planet.
However northern Australia would have been hostile to crops at that time, the area is fire prone in the dry season and suffers from nutrient leeching in the wet so any crop they introduced probably went extinct.
The fact that they were able to survive in a hostile environment for tens of thousands of years is extraordinary.
They are the planet's oldest surviving culture. And a complex one.
Their art, music, stories speak of a complex society.
The laws they put in place to preserve their genetic heritage in a sparsely populated, isolated area speaks of an intelligent race that understood the dangers of limited genetic diversity.
For Raven the sign of an advanced culture is not who has the best toys, who's more technologically advanced. Too many of the technologically advanced cultures in history have gone extinct
No, what makes a superior culture is a culture whose works of art, their music, their poets are admired and preserved and fought for.
Aboriginal culture has survived for over 40,000 years. No other culture on earth has lasted even half that time.