Magical Beings
Again, via Darleen in the comments:
It’s as if the movie Inherit the Wind had a different ending.
She’s referring to this intriguing academic development:
Instructors at a prominent university in Australia have been warned not to lecture on the natural historical record of that country; instead, they should teach a creation narrative regarding the origin of indigenous Australian people. Lecturers at the University of New South Wales “have been warned off making the familiar statement in class that ‘Aboriginal people have been in Australia for 40,000 years’,” The Australian reports. Instead, they should state that “Aborigines have been here ‘since the beginning of the Dreaming/s’ because this ‘reflects the beliefs of many Indigenous Australians that they have always been in Australia, from the beginning of time, and came from the land’.”
It seems we’ve gone from “The aboriginal population is primitive and unable to think rationally about things,” which is a sentiment to be denounced, especially in academia, and progressed to “We must treat the aboriginal population as if it were primitive and unable to think rationally about things.” Which, apparently, is something to be applauded. Especially in academia.
Is this more “decolonizing” the university?
It’s only racist when *other* people do it.
This is wrong teaching, in history or life every one has his origin. Lets not lie to the World but the truth should be taught.
It reminded me of a supposedly serious science documentary that I saw a while ago, the title of which now escapes me. It opened with a protracted, fawning interview with a group of aboriginal people, supposedly sharing their deep insights into the Milky Way and the nature of the universe. The actual content of the aboriginal mumblings was farcical, tedious and had zero scientific content, yet the tone was hushed and reverential, as if the very secrets of creation were being uttered.
But isn’t the achievement of the Aboriginals getting to Australia with ultra primitive tech something to be darned proud of…
But if you lectured science students based on the first chapters of Genesis, you would be marched out of your classroom, handed your termination notice, and whacked from behind with a sock-enveloped bicycle lock wielded by an Antifa “protestor”.
o_ʘ
But isn’t the achievement of the Aboriginals getting to Australia with ultra primitive tech something to be darned proud of…
One would think that crossing even narrow bits of ocean with only loincloth canoes would indeed be a bit of a marvel, but that would tend to invalidate the notion that they always “owned” the land as opposed to their having been spawned whole, as if Minerva from the forehead of Jupiter, from Ayers Rock or whatever the legend is.
‘reflects the beliefs of many Indigenous Australians that they have always been in Australia, from the beginning of time, and came from the land’.
If a landmass forms in the ocean and no one is around to inhabit it, does it really exist?
having been spawned whole, as if Minerva from the forehead of Jupiter, from Ayers Rock or whatever the legend is.
Heh. Classy.
whacked from behind with a sock-enveloped bicycle lock wielded by an Antifa “protestor”
I initially read that as “professor”. 😎
I initially read that as “professor”.
There’s not always a lot of difference.
I’m waiting for them to start teaching creationism in Biology 101
the beliefs of many Indigenous Australians that they have always been in Australia, from the beginning of time,
There was time before Australia existed. Am I allowed to say that?
There was time before Australia existed.
Perhaps the planet coalesced underneath the aboriginals, who were previously just drifting in space.
If you lived in a stone-age culture that was largely hunter/gatherer by nature with a little subsistence farming thrown in, your day would be long and hard and would consist of searching for food, fuel and water.
It should come as no surprise that these things have come to be revered in the cultures of indigenous peoples. It has nothing to do with spirituality and everything to do with survival. They weren’t being particularly spiritual when they were stealing these things from their neighbours while attempting to wipe them out.
…this ‘reflects the beliefs of many Indigenous Australians that they have always been in Australia, from the beginning of time, and came from the land.’
Is there a recent survey showing how many Aborigines really believe this creation myth? I mean, I shudder to think that this could be a case where the severely educated Woke Whites reduce a minority group to a two-dimensional cartoon in order to protect them from something they’ve never worried about before.
Heavens forfend!
If this is such an issue why did whitey bother teaching them to read?
But if you lectured science students based on the first chapters of Genesis, . . . .
. . . . then you would be in a bog standard comparative faith class.
Genesis would be the beginning of the track studying the Tanakh/Christian Testament/Koran/Book of Mormon/Lavey, et al, Satanism sequence of the Abrahamic faiths. There would be the track studying the Hindi faith(s). There would be assorted forms of animism prolly such as Shinto, Etc. Etc . . . . . .
Now I have to buy another ‘Christ-that’s-the-stupidest-shit-I’ve-ever-heard-of-in-59-years’ meter. The one I had was perfectly good, but started sparking and smoking when I read that.
Not blaming you, David. It’s not your fault.
David wrote,
Oh, good grief! I didn’t see the documentary, but in February the subject somehow got into the Astronomy Picture of the Day! https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190208.html
The link on “first astronomers” goes to a credulous article at ABC Science! http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/07/27/2632463.htm
I thought that was a huge stretch and even commented about it on their message board. I would’ve gone with something like David’s, but I thought they’d be far less tolerant of that at APOD than here.
https://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=39149&p=289671#p289671
I didn’t see the documentary, but in February the subject somehow got into the Astronomy Picture of the Day
Yes, the “great celestial Emu” was part of the mumbling and allegedly profound. As you can imagine, modern astronomy, all of physics, pales in comparison with such explanatory richness. They really were stretching the meaning of the word astronomy way past its breaking point.
[ Added: ]
I suppose you might find the ramblings about sky emus interesting as an anthropological footnote, assuming you collect the half-baked barrel-bottom creation myths of very primitive cultures. But the hushed and deferential tone of the documentary was comical, as if the blathering on offer were somehow profound, a lost intellectual treasure. It was absurdly indulgent of the aboriginal people and faintly insulting to the viewer. Apparently, we weren’t supposed to notice the sudden drop in standards.
“First astronomers”? Bah. Stretching themselves too thin. They can’t even tell us the sex of the Turtle.
The spam filter’s taken an exception to Mr James. Not sure why. If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll poke the thing with a broom handle.
Though not for the next eight hours.
Emus all the way down.
I’ll poke the thing with a broom handle
Go on…
@ Steve E: ”They weren’t being particularly spiritual when they were stealing these things from their neighbours while attempting to wipe them out.”
The ”noble savages”, i.e. the Aboriginals who lived in Australia pre-colonisation, were not so noble to other family groups/tribes/clans, nor to their women folk, notwithstanding the desire of the trendy socialist mobs to paint them and their ”culture” in an extremely positive light. They were brutal to each other. It’s also interesting that Aboriginal ”activists” are still inventing ancient cultural practices to this day, e.g. welcome to country ceremonies.
Um, humans tend to begin creation myth in song and words.
The migration is encoded in the caves and scratched on rocks and danced out into rituals.
Quite like getting there, drawing a map, then day 1.
I thought this was understood and not something to be fussed over.
We use carbon dating and genetic drift but that makes maps too, no?
Now call that education or a just a dream and here we are. Happy landings. Happy birthday.
It’s discouraging to watch academia force those under their tutelage into a stunted & stultifying worldview.
…begin creation myth in song and words….
Is there a recent survey showing how many Aborigines really believe this creation myth?
It doesn’t matter what they think or feel. Aborigines are cast as sacred cows, Mahnmaler to reinforce the narrative of Anglo-Celtic Australia being a shameful episode between a pure indigenous past and a redeeming multikulti future.
Historians and astronomers know that there’s no science without keeping track of years. When they’re pretending to take dream chronology seriously they know that you know they’re pretending. The more absurd the thing they’re pretending to take seriously, the better the display of wokeness.
notwithstanding the desire of the trendy socialist mobs to paint them and their ”culture” in an extremely positive light
I recently watched Nicholas Roeg’s film Walkabout, where Jenny Agutter and her brother get lost in the outback and are taken under the wing of an aboriginal boy. The opening sequence shows these cold, pale northern Europeans eating shrinkwrapped meat in airconditioned suburban homes where they’re alienated from blah blah blah. So the audience is cued to expect that Jenny is going to go on a liberating journey where she takes her clothes off to symbolize getting back in touch with nature and humanity etc etc.
But it’s not clear at all that that’s what it’s about. Nature is shown as brutal – creatures dying in the sun and being eaten by creepy crawlies. And Aboriginal culture is shown as low and squalid, although some of that is the fault of whites. I was puzzled enough by the film that I read all of the IMDB reviews to see if anyone else could make head or tail of it. To be fair, most of the top-voted reviews (this is the review I found most interesting) take note of the ambiguity of the film. But a lot of the reviewers don’t seem to have watched the film at all. NPC cue – quote-unquote civilization is really barbaric, and the quote-unquote barbarians are really the civilized ones. Applause lights on, start clapping.
They can’t even tell us the sex of the Turtle.
We cannot know the sex of the turtle until zit tells us. 😉
Walkabout’s a great, though sad, movie.
The left: Christianity is stupid and dumb and people who believe it are stupid and dumb. Stupid dumb dumb dumbs.
Also the left: Aboriginal/Native American/First People/Etc. religious views should be taught as accurate.
Serious question:
I remember learning about the dreaming and other aspects of Indigenous spirituality throughout school. I think there were touches of it through Uni as well. As an Australian, I can understand the improtance/relevance of learning about how Indigenous people understood and made sense of the world. In the same way its useful to learn about the traditions of otehr cultures. It was not presented as a ‘science.’ I’m 30 now, so this may have changed.
But there are hundreds (thousands?) of different indigenous communities around austraia with different languages. Are these dreaming traditions/myths relevant to all communities? It seems really unlikely to me given their diversity in other aspects of their culture, they would all adopt the same mythos. I can imagine a large or prominent community who communicated more with white people may have held these beliefs/traditions, but other communities do not. If so, I wouldn’t like to be assuming ‘all aboriginal ppl beieve this’ and treating only one mythos as gospel Because they are not just one ‘block’ of people.
but i honestly don’t know – can anyone shed any light on this?
Some fifteen years ago, whilst working in South Sudan, I listened to the sonorous voice of a herdsman wafting across the morning veldt. “Why is he singing?” I asked my Boya-speaking colleague. “He is singing of the strength and beauty of his bull,” replied my colleague. Soon the singer strode into view, smeared from head to toe with dried cattle dung, following the bull closely as he sang, his right hand and forearm enclosed within the arsewards of the bull.
“And why is the man’s hand stuck up the bull’s ass?” I asked my colleague.
“It is how he guides the bull,” my patient colleague explained.
“Why is he singing to the bull as he guides it along with his hand encased within the bull’s ass?”
“Because his people have chosen to honor him and his bull by allowing him to sing of the bull’s strength and beauty.”
It is because of encounters such as this, over and again, with Diverse and Vibrant Peoples of the World that I instantly recognized the deep wisdom of AOC’s Green Nude Eel plan to harness the cultures of these Peoples to heal the Earth from wypipo’s capitalist ruin.
Of course they will, with their dung-smeared arms stuffed up our collective arses.
NPC cue – quote-unquote civilization is really barbaric, and the quote-unquote barbarians are really the civilized ones.
From the gushing review:
That would be thousands of years of essentially fossilised Stone Age culture – static, incurious and terminal, and uncomplicated by such barbarities as written language and dentistry.
Happy 4th, fellow Americans!
You Brits may just twist your sneaker toes in the dirt and mumble.
The neighbours, this morning.
Happy 4th, fellow Americans!
You Brits may just twist your sneaker toes in the dirt and mumble.
Do the British observe the 4th of July?
Well, yes, of course.
It’s the day that occurs between the third of July and the fifth of July, which are also observed as they go by . . . .
The neighbours, this morning.
At least it’s not a Union Jack. That would be a hate crime!
@ juliaeryn
Never been to Australia, but I’m pretty sure the explanation is this: When they say “Aboriginals”, they’re not talking about individual people, or groups of people. It is a neo-Marxist abstraction. Aboriginals are a Class, like the Proletariat or the Bourgeoisie. Statements about Marxist classes are disputed according to Marxist theory, not by comparing to reality. Now, if an individual agrees with a statement which has already been proven correct, that’s fine. If he disagrees, then he’s either suffering from False Consciousness, or is actually a Kulak, or his parents were Kulaks, or maybe he’s just a Class Traitor. So send him to the Gulag, or stand him up against a wall. Any more individuals want to express their opinions? Good. Also, remember that any Proven Marxist Statement today might turn out to be Trotskyite propaganda tomorrow. Still no individuals who want to express their opinions? Great! Form up and march forwards to the Glorious Future, Comrades!
So if you keep trying to dispute neo-marxist statements by appeals to reality, you’re obviously Problematic (because that’s such a white thing to do), and possibly alt-right to boot, and need to be bludgeoned into compliance. You understand that, Fascist!?!
Maybe this partly reflects recent discoveries that offer pretty consistent evidence for their being human habitation in Australia for much longer than 40,000 years. There’ve been several human fossils found that are much older than 40,000 years.
If the story is not just a beat up (and I’m a little cynical, knowing how scurrilous the media can be) it’s pretty ignorant , since ‘The Dreaming’ isn’t even thought of as a fixed point in history. It’s more an ever present mythical landscape; maybe it’s best thought of as a kind of folk version of Plato’s forms.
Pretty interesting stuff anyway, check out a Wikipedia precis here.
It’s funny how the left regard brown people as being indigenous to a particular nation or continent but when it comes to white people, the term is considered ‘deeply offensive’.
It’s funny how the left regard brown people as being indigenous to a particular nation or continent but when it comes to white people, the term is considered ‘deeply offensive’.
And it took not one but two lecturers to construct such a piss-poor shambles of an argument.
The first step in liquidating a people,’ said Hubl, ‘is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster. ― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Makes you think…
He also wrote this:
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.
I’d say M. Kundera is onto something.
I never understood why Jenny didn’t just follow the car’s tracks and go back the way they came in.
The important thing is not to include any acts of racist cultural appropriation in today’s celebrations of the first Brexit.
Oh it gets better. Some fantasist wrote a fictional book about Aboriginal history (BTW original indigenous Australian’s couldn’t read or write, so the history has been confected since 2000 by pseudo-academics) called “Dark Emu” in which it’s claimed they built housing (which magically disappeared) built dams (ditto) farmed crops (no farms found yet – 231 years of looking), invented science, and the kicker – wait for it – invented democracy. We are living in a golden age of fiction. For people who’d struggle to read a Golden Book.
The important thing is not to include any acts of racist cultural appropriation in today’s celebrations of the first Brexit.
Culture is made for sharing. That’s rather the point of it, isn’t it?