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  1. Indigenous Ingenuity

    During my 'recent' researches I inked two things together , that 'academia' does not seem to realise . One is the latest view on human origins in Australia and the origin of the Aboriginals and some 'mystery' about a third 'Indian ingress ' some 6000 ya. that is now shown to be 'internal' but that view creates the 'mystery' , 'ghost population' ... that spread vast cultural influence then 'the people' { that did this) 'disappeared ' ) - A Genomic History of Aboriginal Australia ' .... article ; https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/unprecedented-study-of-aboriginal-australians-points-to-one-shared-out-of-africa-migration-for . The other is recently revealed 'secret traditional' knowledge that explains this change in culture - 'The Origins of Society in Australia ' , where an 'artistic visionary' was able to have his ideas accepted and spread . This visionary is one of my examples of indigenous ingenuity . My other example (also from the same 'Indigenous Culture ' , ie. 'Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders ' ); The Torres Straights (between Cape York , far NE Oz and PNG ) . The 'link' that academia seems as yet, unaware of ; from the recent genetic paper : " The first significant investigation into the genomics of Aboriginal Australians has uncovered several major findings about early human populations. These include evidence of a single “Out of Africa” migration event, and of a previously unidentified, “ghost-like” population spread which provided a basis for the modern Aboriginal cultural landscape. Evidence that a mysterious dispersal from the northeastern part of Australia roughly 4,000 years ago contributed to the cultural links between Aboriginal groups today. These internal migrants defined the way in which people spoke and thought, but then disappeared from most of the continent, in a manner which the researchers describe as “ghost-like” Finally, the research also offers an intriguing new perspective on how Aboriginal culture itself developed, raising the possibility of a mysterious, internal migration 4,000 years ago. About 90% of Aboriginal communities today speak languages belonging to the “Pama-Nyungan” linguistic family. The study finds that all of these people are descendants of the founding population which diverged from the Papuans 37,000 years ago, then diverged further into genetically isolated communities. This, however, throws up a long-established paradox. Language experts are adamant that Pama-Nyungan languages are much younger, dating back 4,000 years, and coinciding with the appearance of new stone technologies in the archaeological record. Scientists have long puzzled over how – if these communities were completely isolated from each other and the rest of the world – they ended up sharing a language family that is much younger? The traditional answer has been that there was a second migration into Australia 4,000 years ago, by people speaking this language. But the new research finds no evidence of this. Instead, the team uncovered signs of a tiny gene flow, indicating a small population movement from north-east Australia across the continent, potentially at the time the Pama-Nyungan language and new stone tool technologies appeared. These intrepid travellers, who must have braved forbidding environmental barriers, were small in number, but had a significant, sweeping impact on the continent’s culture. Mysteriously, however, the genetic evidence for them then disappears. In short, their influential language and culture survived – but they, as a distinctive group, did not. “It’s a really weird scenario,” Willerslev said. “A few immigrants appear in different villages and communities around Australia. They change the way people speak and think; then they disappear, like ghosts. And people just carry on living in isolation the same way they always have. This may have happened for religious or cultural reasons that we can only speculate about. But in genetic terms, we have never seen anything like it before.” Here is the 'missing link' : http://www.ifrao.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/31-1-Doring.pdf I will cobble together an intro (from me ) then a summary from the paper ; During the Ice Age (or down here 'The Great Drought ' ) times where hard , desertification extensive in the interior and things 'scarce' . Palaeontological human evidence shows more evidence of conflict and warfare . After the end of the Ice Age , when the environment stabilised into new conditions things got much better , Australia became a land of abundance . There was no need for the conflict or the old ways of doing things . How should people relate together now , in a good system of share and care in the abundance ? Enter our artist-visionary , Wibalma , he had an idea and made a 'culture object / teaching aid ' and used it to help explain his ideas . ( What could that object have been , I wonder ... is this early Aboriginal 'sculpture' ? Some thing like a Polynesian stick star map for ocean navigation or what ? We cant see it at this sage . This is all sacred secret knowledge , it is being revealed as the Elders have no proper students / initiates to learn it any more , and any fear of punishments for revealing it have outweighed its survival importance ... as we shall see . When this happens knowledge is then stored in the archives at the central library in Canberra , the nation's capitol . However it gets 'sealed' with limited access according to sex - men and women's 'business ' - , various rights, levels of initiation , etc . What we have here is the 'public access ' sections. ) He sends out a message to tribes across the land and they send representatives to hear him . They like the message and agree to adopt the system , doing a 'sealing ceremony' about that and then spread out. back home . This is the start of the Aboriginal system of ending nomadism and tying people / 'belonging' to areas of country by birthright and relations , the very complex moiety and totemic systems tied in with environmental considerations and other things . Some see the language spread as mysterious , . but I know some indigenous today that speak 5 or 6 languages as well as English , sometimes they prefer one over the the other, depending on what or who is at hand . Its not surprising to me that a language associated with a new teaching would spread like the teaching did . Have a look at the article above ; it shows images including the original site that was made for this meeting , its still there ! Australia's 'Round Table ' ; Figure 4. Aerial view of the stone table at Dududu.ngarri. Top of aerial image is north with a stone arrangement approximately fifty metres across. The Kimberley hosts known as Kamali were tribes with nomadic bird names and remain represented by seventeen named stones encircling the table. All the visiting tribes from the ‘sunrise’ regions to the east, from northern coast to central desert, form two long lines of jallala— signal stones. Stones arranged in circles and positioned west of the table represent coastal tribes and southern tribe To me this fits with the missing influence described in the new genetic paper . The 'ingenuity' here is in the vision and method , as said above , seems to be totally different from that supposed elsewhere . It shows a massive and lasting change sweeping through culture - a few academics have realised is very significant - not via an invading war lord or other forms of war or conflict , climate disaster or change , plague , etc but by the creative vision of an artist and ( most importantly , I feel ) the acceptance of the populace . The other example from Torres Straight Islands ( I posted on this previously ( ^ it contains cool vid of Malo ceremony ) The islands consist of 8 outer islands and one large inner one . As time went on the outer islander's eyes turned to the lesser populated and developed inner island . Some sensed potential conflict between the outer islands and the inner island feared invasion . Then enter our visionary , he explains to the clan chiefs ( I am going off the top of my head here and it's my transliteration ) Yes, you are all different clans on different islands with different laws and gods ... and that is good , but we all have one God and that is Malo . Now , you are all very familiar with the octopus , you observe it has eight arms , all these arms are independent and have their own brain but all work in concert with and for the good of the whole animal . The head does not need to interfere with them, except for this greater good . All you groups and islands are the arms of the octopus God Malo , the central island is his head , we are all the octopus . It made sense to them so they worked out how their independence and association worked , what laws applied to all (eg , no war amongst yourselves , come together for defence against outside conflict , laws of trade, etc . ) and what laws where not needed on every island and considered a restriction . These guys invented 'federated ' /state ' system of government (or 'sociocracy' if one prefers ) thousands of years ago ! Its a system still in place and working today . Malo ; ( Man ! I gotta get one of them shark drums ! )