HLSC120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Message Stick, Hunter-Gatherer
Document Summary
Summary of key points from this week"s lecture. Historical context timeline; relationship to land/sea (country) Challenge writing down the meaning in western format. Social context relationships and community; communication; values/beliefs. Structure of society hunter gatherer evidence scarred trees; middens; stone tools. Relationships (rights, obligations and responsibilities) to community kinship allegiances to the environment to the spirit world of the ancestors. Lore social control and behaviour management place country and sea sharing, caring and respect. Spiritual context the dreamtime; rituals & ceremony: myths the dreaming stories, rituals and ceremony. Totems relationship with natural species: dance telling of stories. Stars of tagai: cult heroes ancestral beings (eg tagai a warrior, particular stars and constellations, guidance through their positioning. Symbols of relationship between people and nature: relationship with each other, to ancestors and the past at particular sites, clan totems. Localising the sacred to a geographical landscape: can be secret where only the fully initiated can visit, mythical significance.