Like many on the Forum, I am aged over 65, and attended school in the 1960's, and for some, earlier than that. In my time the 'Brown People', the original inhabitants of Australia, were portrayed in books and at school, as a simple, primitive childlike people. The image of the true native was of a near naked savage living an existence of a hunter-gather somewhere in the wild interior of the continent.

I have now discovered that much of what I was taught about the Aboriginal people of pre European settlement days was based mostly on misinformation and/or racism. The sorts of myths tough then, and still perpetuating, and believed by many today include;

1. That there is only one, and there ever was, only one Aboriginal culture. Not true.

2. Aboriginal people were then, and are still today inherently passive and lazy. Not true.

3. Aboriginal people were nothing more than nomadic hunter-gatherers. Not true.

4. Australia was an untamed wilderness before European settlement. Not true.

The fact is, instead of being a simple, primitive childlike people before European settlement Aboriginal society had a high degree of sophistication and the people lived a rather complex existence. The false and sometimes racists narratives of the past are untrue, and we should understand what a remarkable people we now share this continent with.

What I learned from an article by Mike Frost, Head of Missiology at Morning College Sydney

Well we white have failed what you call brown people Paul
To many feed off the money we grant them
Sadly over half are Brown people
Culture? it has been fractured over the past 20 plus years, in truth even they no longer know much about how it was
ABC radio National, Author has written a book on behalf of these folk,
Told us traditionally, right across this country, *people blame, Captain Cook*, PERSONALLY, for rapes and murders
He Must have been a busy man
Education must be for every child, forced if it needs it
Health housing stop forgetting they are in the end, like America's native people, victims of our take over of their country

"Aboriginal society had a high degree of sophistication and the people lived a rather complex existence. "

Relative to a modern western society this is simply NOT true. Just to give an example, I live on a short street with a dozen houses. Within just these dozens homes we have: a doctor, a nurse, a builder, a plasterer, an insurance dealer, 4 retirees, an office worker, a full-time mum and these are just those that I know! The extreme division of labour in modern society naturally leads to a more complex society.
We also have many more societal structures at many different levels than aboriginals: eg- we have structured religions, businesses/companies, formal governments, government departments, organised defence forces, charities, clubs and organised sports, voluntary services (like lifesavers), etc.
Also, our economic system is extremely advanced compared to theirs. This system not only allow us to trade easily between each other across the country but as well across the entire world thus economically deeply linking our society to the rest of the world.

In short, modern Australian society is *vastly* more complex than pre-European times.

Additionally, our collective knowledge is immeasurably greater than that of the original inhabitants. Aboriginals never had writing so were severely limited in their ability to pass on knowledge through the generations. Also they lived quite locally and isolated so they couldn't disseminate knowledge easily across the continent (unlike today where I'm currently communicating with you over a vast distance). They also never established much in the way of maths and formal logic so they cannot describe in detail how the world around them works.

Yes, thinkabit. True. This thread is based on some academic's rewriting of history.

We're all equally intelligent. Every society on earth was a foraging one barely ten thousand years ago, i.e. hunting and gathering. Those societies developed relatively simple technologies. They were organised along strong clan/family lines, in jealously-guarded territories, with a common notion that all non-clan 'others' were not as human and could be exterminated without hesitation. So people spoke a vast multitude of languages, as they still do in many areas.

Such clan primitiveness is evident in my Scottish and Irish ancestors, with interminable wars between groups until barely a few hundred years ago. I was just watching a program about the savagery of clan warfare across Central Asia - nothing unique, of course. Such warfare in Africa and Polynesia and pre-contact America is well-known.

My bet is that, if thorough DNA tests were carried out in China, there would be a very common Y chromosome (male) distribution, but an extremely varied (female) mitochondrial DNA distribution, mirroring the ancient practice of exterminating males and forcibly marrying females. In fact, that's probably the distribution pattern amongst most Aboriginal groups here.

So intelligent people lived primitive lives everywhere, until extremely few areas, perhaps only four or five around the world, developed farming up to ten thousand years ago, probably after a long period of pastoralism and care for animals (most likely by the women of clans) for their milk, wool and hair. Hunter/gatherers resisted farming, and its spread across Europe from eastern Turkey/northern Iraq & Syria, took many thousands of years, more likely by the displacement of hunter/gatherers than any outright adoption of farming practices.

I hope this helps.

Joe

so even evolutionist don't believe some are evolved more than others. Always knew that theory was c ap.