Landscapes, Rock-Art and the Dreaming - An Archaeology of Preunderstanding

The apparent timelessness of the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia has long mystified European observers, conjuring images of an ancient people in harmony with their surroundings. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the Dreaming''s historical antiquity had never been explored by archaeologists prior to this study. In this book, Bruno David examines the archaeological evidence for Dreaming-mediated places, rituals and symbolism. What emerges is not a static culture, but a mode of conceiving the world that emerged in its recognizable form only about 1,000 years ago. This is a world of what the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer has called pre-understanding, a condition of knowledge that shapes one''s experience of the world. By tracing through time the archaeological visibility of one well known mode of pre-understanding - the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia - the author argues that it is possible to scientifically explore an archaeology of pre-understanding; of body and mind, identity and Being-in-the-world.>

Product details

• Authors: Bruno David
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2022
• EAN: 9781350345003
• ISBN: 978-1-350-34500-3
• No. of pages: 264
• Series: New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Ethnology; Australia, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Indigenous Peoples, Social and cultural anthropology, Archaeology by period / region, Indigenous, ethnic and folk religions and spiritual beliefs