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Australian Aboriginal myths (also known as Dream time or Dreaming stories, songlines, or Aboriginal oral literature) are the stories traditionally performed by Aboriginal peoples〔Morris, C. (1994) "Oral Literature" in Horton, David (General Editor)〕 within each of the language groups across Australia. All such myths variously tell significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local landscape. They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and empower selected audiences with the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to time immemorial.〔Morris, C. (1995) "An Approach to Ensure Continuity and Transmission of the Rainforest Peoples' Oral Tradition", in Fourmile, H; Schnierer, S.; & Smith, A. (Eds) ''An Identification of Problems and Potential for Future Rainforest Aboriginal Cultural Survival and Self-Determination in the Wet Tropics.'' Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation Research and Development. Cairns, Australia〕 David Horton's ''Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia'' contains an article on Aboriginal mythology observing:〔Berndt, C. (1994) "Mythology" in David Horton (General Editor)〕
Australian Aboriginal mythologies have been characterised as "at one and the same time fragments of a catechism, a liturgical manual, a history of civilization, a geography textbook, and to a much smaller extent a manual of cosmography."〔Van Gennep, A. (1906)〕 ==Antiquity== An Australian linguist, R. M. W. Dixon, recording Aboriginal myths in their original languages, encountered coincidences between some of the landscape details being told about within various myths, and scientific discoveries being made about the same landscapes.〔Dixon, R. M. W. (1972) ''The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 29〕 In the case of the Atherton Tableland, myths tell of the origins of Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine, and Lake Euramo. Geological research dated the formative volcanic explosions described by Aboriginal myth tellers as having occurred more than 10,000 years ago. Pollen fossil sampling from the silt which had settled to the bottom of the craters confirmed the Aboriginal myth-tellers' story. When the craters were formed, eucalyptus forests dominated rather than the current wet tropical rain forests.〔Dixon, R. M. W. (1996)〕〔(Ngadjon jii - Earthwatch Web Page )〕 (See Lake Euramo for an excerpt of the original myth, translated.) Dixon observed from the evidence available that Aboriginal myths regarding the origin of the Crater Lakes might be dated as accurate back to 10,000 years ago.〔 Further investigation of the material by the Australian Heritage Commission led to the Crater Lakes myth being listed nationally on the Register of the National Estate, and included within Australia's World Heritage nomination of the wet tropical forests, as an "unparalleled human record of events dating back to the Pleistocene era."〔cited in PANNELL, S (2006) ''Reconciling Nature and Culture in a Global Context: Lessons form the World Heritage List''(Jcu.edu.au ). James Cook University, Cairns. p. 11〕 Since then, Dixon has assembled a number of similar examples of Australian Aboriginal myths that accurately describe landscapes of an ancient past. He particularly noted the numerous myths telling of previous sea levels, including:〔Dixon 1996〕 *the Port Phillip myth (recorded as told to Robert Russell in 1850), describing Port Phillip Bay as once dry land, and the course of the Yarra River being once different, following what was then Carrum Carrum swamp. *the Great Barrier Reef coastline myth (told to Dixon) in Yarrabah, just south of Cairns, telling of a past coastline (since flooded) which stood at the edge of the current Great Barrier Reef, and naming places now completely submerged after the forest types and trees that once grew there. *the Lake Eyre myths (recorded by J. W. Gregory in 1906), telling of the deserts of Central Australia as once having been fertile, well-watered plains, and the deserts around present Lake Eyre having been one continuous garden. This oral story matches geologists' understanding that there was a wet phase to the early Holocene when the lake would have had permanent water. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian Aboriginal mythology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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