Cultural customs of Australian aborigines

Aboriginal stories, songs and traditions are passed down from generation to generation. Song and dance parties and celebration balls still retain these traditional cultures; Tribal members get together to tell Australia's past through songs, music and dances. Introduction:

Australian aborigines live in strict customs and norms. Each tribe is divided into three "age-sex" groups: adult male group, adult female group and children group. Among the adult male groups, there is a small but influential elder class, who is the defender of customs and the embodiment of social power. Even if other men are allowed to attend the elders' meeting, they can only attend and cannot participate in decision-making. When children enter adulthood, they should hold a dedication ceremony, that is, a rite of passage.

Steps:

Generally speaking, a complete adult ceremony includes the following steps.

First of all, let boys be separated from women and young children for a period of time, and only get close to men and the elderly, so as to teach tribal beliefs and legends and learn worship rituals. Things often start when the boy is suddenly caught by his parents in ignorance and blindfolded and taken to the man's residence. The next day, led by his grandfather, he visited tribal men from far and near and watched their performances. This is the boy's first time to see the totem ceremony of the tribe.

Second, circumcision. Circumcision is carried out by grandpa, dad and uncle, and the whole process must not be seen by women and children.

Again, tattoos. Adult men will regularly cut wounds on boys' hands, legs, feet, shoulders, back and chest with sharp shells. And coated with charcoal powder to make the wound heal and leave scars. In this process, the old man often sets an example by puncturing his elbow vein and letting blood drip on the boy to instill courage in him.

Then, the boy will stay in the forest to learn various hunting and weapon skills, and accept some physical fitness tests. These physical fitness tests are strange, but they can cultivate the spirit of hard work for boys, such as biting each other's heads and muscles, smoking on the fire, even knocking out teeth and pulling out hair. In this process, boys should follow some dietary taboos.

Finally, the tribe will hold a grand totem ceremony to officially announce that the boy has "grown up". In advance, the newcomer was tied to a campfire with green branches, and his sister slapped him on the back at will. Only after the test of this fire ",indigenous men have the right to get married.

The final act of the rite of passage is a large-scale indigenous carnival dance-Koropoli. Dances are usually arranged in the evening. As night fell, the indigenous people lit bonfires in the Woods, and men, women and children sang and danced around the bonfires. The man was the protagonist of the whole ceremony, while the woman kept patting her ass, shaking her head, shaking her hair and muttering to herself.

Evaluation:

The rite of passage is an important event in the life of an indigenous man, which marks his transition from a children's group to an adult men's group. Only indigenous men who have passed the bar mitzvah are eligible to get married. At the same time, bar mitzvah is also the best time to teach survival skills and tribal traditions. There were about 500 different tribes in Australia when Europeans came here. From 65438 to 0787, Europeans immigrated to Australia in large numbers. Due to the conflict between land and biological resources, and the original weapons of aborigines can not resist foreign aggression, at least 20 thousand aborigines died in land conflicts, many aborigines became slaves, and most aborigines lost fertile and feasible land and were driven to barren land. What is even more disastrous is that immigrants have brought a lot of diseases, which have made the aborigines who are already short of living resources worse. By 1933, the number of aborigines in Australia was only about 70,000.

1770, the British navigator james cook arrived at the east coast of Australia and announced that Britain occupied this land.

1788 65438+ 10, the first batch of prisoners exiled to Australia by Britain arrived in Sydney Bay, and Britain began to establish colonies in Australia. At that time, it was estimated that 750,000 aborigines lived in Australia. European colonists arrived in Australia on 1788 and drove the indigenous tribes out of their territory.

1789, the first smallpox epidemic infected by colonists occurred among indigenous people, resulting in the death of hundreds of indigenous people.

179 1 year, the British colonial authorities "allocated" the land near Sydney Bay to exiled prisoners who had served their sentences, and began the process of depriving indigenous people of their land. In this process, the conflict between aborigines and colonists led to the death of tens of thousands of aborigines.

19011110, the colony of Australia was changed to Australia, and the Commonwealth of Australia was established, but the aborigines were excluded from the census and classified as "animal groups".

19 10, Australia adopted a policy. On the grounds of improving the lives of indigenous children, the authorities stipulate that mixed-race indigenous children can be taken away from indigenous families at will and concentrated in nurseries and other places.

1937, the Australian authorities adopted an official policy of forced assimilation of mixed-race indigenous people. In the middle of last century, with the tide of international anti-colonialism and the rising voice of international human rights, the Australian government's "White Australia Policy" with apartheid as its content gradually collapsed. The fate of the aborigines has improved.

1958 February 14, an organization named "Federal Indigenous Advancement Committee" was established in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, Australia. There are representatives from five states in mainland Australia. Interestingly, among the 65,438+02 delegates, only three are indigenous and the others are white. More and more white people sympathize with the aborigines, which cannot be said to be social progress. The Committee adopted a seven-point statement of principle: abolish all laws that discriminate against indigenous people; Amend the constitution and authorize the federal government to legislate to protect indigenous people; Improve the living conditions of indigenous people.

The following year, the second annual meeting of the Committee was held in Melbourne, which absorbed the indigenous people of Torres Shea Island, who also had no civil rights, and changed its name to "Aboriginal and Torres Shea Islander Progress Committee". This national organization has waged unremitting struggle for the rights and interests of indigenous people.

In the constitutional amendment of 1967, the Australian government announced the abolition of Article 127 of the Constitution, "When calculating the federal population ……", and granted citizenship to the aborigines.

1967, Australians voted in favor of amending the Constitution to include indigenous people in the census and give them the right to vote.

Since then, some legislation has been introduced on indigenous land, education, culture and other issues. From the federal government to the state and regional governments, they are committed to protecting the rights of indigenous people from laws, policies and policy measures. Indigenous people and indigenous cultures have been recognized by the government, and various cultures have developed healthily in the direction of harmonious coexistence, mutual respect and integration. Australia has entered a new stage of multicultural development.

1970 On April 29th, Mr. and Mrs. White held a grand celebration in Sydney Harbour to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook's "discovery" of Australia. Indigenous people from all over Australia gathered at Cook's landing site to hold mourning activities. The placard reads the names of the disappearing tribes. They said, "They celebrate them, and we will mourn for many people who have died." In the same year, the Australian government abolished the law that allowed the authorities to take away indigenous children.

From 65438 to 0972, the Australian government re-recognized indigenous issues and began to consider the legal protection of indigenous rights, and the "multicultural policy" began to take off.

1976, the Australian government passed a decree to recognize the ownership of a large area of land in the "northern region". Since then, indigenous people have set off a wave of movements demanding the return of ancestral land. The indigenous people have been fighting for the recovery of their lost territories and shrines.

1992, the Australian government abolished the policy of Non-Administered Territories. In the same year, the Supreme Court of Australia ruled that before the colonial period, indigenous people had a form of ownership in Australia.

1997, a national survey reported that the policy of taking indigenous children away from their families has caused mental trauma to as many as 65,438+10,000 indigenous people. The report suggests that the government should compensate the "stolen generation". In the same year, the National Reconciliation Congress was held in Melbourne. Premier Howard defended the "stolen generation" at the meeting, and all the aborigines present turned their backs on the Prime Minister. The aborigines think that Howard's Liberal Party's attitude towards aborigines is far less than that of the Labour Party. They also think that Howard sympathizes with the "Single National Party", which actually advocates the "White Australia policy".

In 2007, Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister and promised to apologize to those aborigines on behalf of the government.

On February 13, 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the government, made a formal apology for the suffering of Australian aborigines who landed on the Australian mainland for hundreds of years. On that day, about 1000 indigenous people gathered near the parliament in Canberra, Australia, to watch the historic apology ceremony of the Australian government, and local governments also concentrated local indigenous people on the big TV screen to watch the live broadcast.