Landscapes, Rock-Art and the Dreaming

An Archaeology of Preunderstanding

Professor Bruno David (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

264 Seiten

2023
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-34500-3 (ISBN)

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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 seminal text in rock-art research, now reissued with a new preface, 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.

Bruno David is a Professor in the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre at Monash University, Australia. He has published over 100 academic and popular papers and monographs, is co-editor of Inscribed Landscapes, and has been awarded more than 50 prizes and awards, including the inaugural Antiquity Prize for his work on the archaeology of rock-art in Northern Australia.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface

1. Introduction

Part I. The Present Past

2. The Dreaming
3. Placing the Dreaming: The Archaeology of a Sacred Mountain
4. Performing the Dreaming: Ritual in the Arid Zone
5. Symbols of the Dreaming: Rock-Art as Representation
6. The Present Past?

Part II. Presenting the Past

7. Archaeological Trends in Australian Pre-History
8. Seeds of Change
9. Regionalization
10. Conclusion

References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	23.02.2023
Reihe/Serie	New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology
Zusatzinfo	76 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	176 x 252 mm
Gewicht	480 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-350-34500-8 / 1350345008
ISBN-13	978-1-350-34500-3 / 9781350345003
Zustand	Neuware