The Deep Past of Pre-Colonial Australia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5795087
AutoresStephanie J Mawson (0000-0001-9676-1506, St. John's College of Nursing, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen64
Número5
Páginas1477-1499
Fecha de publicación2020-10-30
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x20000369
OpenAlexW3094741924
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas60

Human occupation of Australia dates back to at least 65,000 years. Aboriginal ontologies incorporate deep memories of this past, at times accompanied by a conviction that Aboriginal people have always been there. This poses a problem for historians and archaeologists: how to construct meaningful histories that extend across such a long duration of space and time. While earlier generations of scholars interpreted pre-colonial Aboriginal history as static and unchanging, marked by isolation and cultural conservatism, recent historical scholarship presents Australia's deep past as dynamic and often at the cutting-edge of human technological innovation. This historiographical shift places Aboriginal people at the centre of pre-colonial history by incorporating Aboriginal oral histories and material culture, as well as ethnographic and anthropological accounts. This review considers some of the debates within this expansive and expanding field, focusing in particular on questions relating to Aboriginal agriculture and land management and connections between Aboriginal communities and their Southeast Asian neighbours. At the same time, the study of Australia's deep past has become a venue for confronting colonial legacies, while also providing a new disciplinary approach to the question of reconciliation and the future of Aboriginal sovereignty in Australia

Archaeology · Colonialism · Discipline · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Historiography · Political science · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Sovereignty · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies