The Elements of the Aborigine Tradition

A survey of the religious, ritual and mythological aspects of traditional Aboriginal culture; origins of Aboriginal culture; significance of the Dreaming - associations with the dog (dingo), rainbow snake, sky heroes, paternity and conception; celestial phenomena and cosmology; totemism, kinship, totemic identity and sacred objects; initiation ritual; role of art in ritual - Wandjina; function of myth and its relation to landscape; creation and powers of the clever men; ritual sexual relations in northern Australia; mortuary and after death beliefs.