It is fairly common to game the definitions on terms such as 'civilization', 'democracy', and 'genocide' - this is typically done by nationalists of every denomination in order to make their own country or culture shine, or make that of their rivals stink. I've seen that even on this site in an article by Pat Byrne.

In this particular case, I do know that China's civilization is considered one of the oldest on the planet- that it was already old 3000 years ago, according to some people. I guess this would be because the lineage of people living there now is the same as before. Australian Natives, using a DNA analysis, indeed are measured to track back to the original African diaspora, 50K years ago.

Hi David,

That is a reference to the Aboriginal culture being one continuous unchanged culture for 50,000 years. No other human society can trace its lineage that far back. 252 years of European occupation has caused massive upheaval for common Aboriginals, in every facet of their traditional existence, language, beliefs, practices etc, they were all attempted to be extinguished, either by accident, or by forced action on the part of the European.

Aboriginal culture was almost wiped out within Australia in a very short space of time, however today there is a revival in that culture including language, art, beliefs and practices. With the dominant and destructive influence of European society there is no possibility Aboriginal culture will ever return to what it was pre 1788, however it will continue to exist in a modern form, which is a good thing for all Australians.

I suppose I should back up that accusation on Pat. He wrote the article "Locking up the dogs of war: huge decline in war-related deaths", and I have never seen a more distorted piece of agitprop. He reports 8863 were killed in Iraq. Which, honestly, is just plain stupid.

I say this because the figure suggested by ORB (Opinion Research Business, an independent UK based polling agency) had a margin of error of 2.5%, and showed the number killed was between 946,000 to 1,120,000. The Lancet survey published in 2006 reported a mere 654,965, in contrast. Regardless, claiming it was only 8863 shows a lack of respect by Pat for truth, human life in general, and also the intelligence of his readers.

Foxy,

The minimum requirement for civilization is a written language. Even the link you provide does not claim that.

Also as cultures change over time, the claim that the culture today is the same as that from 60 000 years ago is pure fantasy.

Aboriginal ... what? .... culture, I suppose, didn’t come within a bull's roar of 'civilisation' by any definition. Primitive, hunter-gatherers is the best description, with remote communities not much further advanced than they were 60,000 years ago - or whatever the latest guess on their time here is.

The more Leftist crap that is put about on these people, the more hopeless they look; the more sick and tired of them people become; which is a shame for most of them who live in the mainstream with the rest of us.

We now have 11 people of aboriginal descent in parliament; let them sort it out, you Green/Labor/Marxist nasties, who have no interest in any group of people - just your own, twisted, anti-social, anti-everything sickness.

Most of the warped thinking on aboriginal affairs is fomented in NSW and Victoria. The latest stupidities being Perrottet's $25 million flag, and Andrews' 'treaty' with his own citizens!

Perrottet has ungrammatically said that he would put the flag "up himself". There would be many people who would be glad to perform that painful exercise for him, pole first.

Andrews is too thick and out of control to know that the time for a treaty passed two centuries ago, and that a country cannot make a treaty with itself. But, remember, he was stupid enough to think that a tinpot state premier could make a deal with a foreign power (CCP and 'belt and road).

The last person to dabble with a treaty was Bob Hawke, who signed the Barunga Statement in the NT and promised “a treaty within the life of this parliament”. But, when he returned to Canberra, he discovered that he could not deliver on his pledge because international law does not recognise as treaties agreements between the government of a country and any group of its own citizens.

End of story. Hawke was the last Labor leader, state or federal, who wasn’t a halfwit. We have the halfwits we have now because halfwits keep voting for them.