Australian mythology

1.

Australian mythology
Prepared by Mukha Oleg

2.

Australian mythology
The mythology of the natives of Australia, who settled this continent in the
Mesolithic and Late Neolithic and preserved a very archaic culture. Australian
mythology is closely intertwined with the ritual life of the Australian tribes and
reflects the totemic cults and rites of intichium (the magical reproduction of
animals of their totem), the calendar cult of the great mother in the north of the
country and the universally widespread rites of initiation.

3.

Totemic myths
The totemic myths of Aranda and Loritia are
almost all built according to the same scheme:
totemic ancestors alone or in a group return to
their homeland - to the north. The places passed,
the search for food, meals, the organization of
camps, meetings on the way are listed in detail.
Not far from the homeland, in the north, there is
often a meeting with local "eternal people" of the
same totem. Having reached the goal, the
wandering heroes go into a hole, a cave, a spring,
underground, turning into rocks, trees, churingas.
This is often attributed to fatigue.

4.

"Eternal People"
The "eternal people" of the Algerian times,
who later became flycatcher lizards, play a
particularly important role. The tales of their
wanderings take on the character of an
anthropogenetic and partly cosmogonic
myth. Tradition classifies their wanderings
among the earliest. However, in reality, they
probably mark a less primitive stage in the
history of mythology, since here the origin
of not one totem group is treated, but at
least several, and we are talking not only
about the scattering of churingas, but about
the initial emergence of "humanity".

5.

Rainbow serpent
In 1926, Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, an
English
anthropologist
specializing
in
ethnology and ethnography of the Australian
aborigines, noted that many groups of
indigenous peoples, distributed throughout
the Australian continent, apparently retain
variants of one myth about a snake - an
incredibly strong, often dangerous, sometimes
huge, closely associated with rainbows, rain,
rivers and deep waters.

6.

Rainbow serpent
Radcliffe-Brown used the term "Rainbow Serpent" to
describe this deity.
Descended from a larger being, visible as a dark streak
in the Milky Way, it manifests itself to people in this
world as a rainbow. The creature has healing abilities, it
can heal ulcers, weakness and other diseases.
Australian Aboriginal rock art
depicting the "rainbow serpent"
In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent plays an
important role in creation myths. It was believed that
shamans get their extraordinary abilities from the
Rainbow Serpent: the Serpent spews quartz crystals,
which are then swallowed by the shaman

7.

Thank you for your attention!