Book description

The apparent timelessness of the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia has long intrigued European observers, conjuring images of an ancient people, much akin to Europe's own ancestral past, in harmony with their surroundings. In this book, Bruno David examines the archaeological evidence for Dreaming-mediated places, rituals and symbolism. What emerges is not a static culture of long-standing, but a mode of conceiving the world that emerged in its recognisable form only about 1000 years ago.

As a world-view, the Dreaming in its various regional manifestations is an example of what the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer has called preunderstanding, a condition of knowledge that guides interpretation and that shapes one's experience of the world. By tracing through time the archaeological visability of one well-known mode of preunderstanding - the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia - the author argues that it is possible to scientifically explore an archaeology of preunderstanding; of body and mind; alterity, identity and Being-in-the-world. Such an investigation is ultimately also a self-reflective questioning of various preconceptions that continue to inform Western notions of the indigenous Other in a supposedly post-colonial world.

About the Author

Dr. Bruno David is a Logan Research Fellow and archaeologist in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University,

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