Bloomsbury Home
This product is usually dispatched within 10-14 days
- Delivery and returns info
-
Free UK delivery on orders £30 or over
Description
The apparent timelessness of the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia has long mystified European observers, conjuring images of an ancient people in harmony with their surroundings. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the Dreaming's historical antiquity had never been explored by archaeologists prior to this study.
In this seminal text in rock-art research, now reissued with a new preface, Bruno David examines the archaeological evidence for Dreaming-mediated places, rituals and symbolism. What emerges is not a static culture, but a mode of conceiving the world that emerged in its recognizable form only about 1,000 years ago. This is a world of what the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer has called pre-understanding, a condition of knowledge that shapes one's experience of the world. By tracing through time the archaeological visibility of one well known mode of pre-understanding - the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australia - the author argues that it is possible to scientifically explore an archaeology of pre-understanding; of body and mind, identity and Being-in-the-world.
Table of Contents
List of Tables
Preface
1. Introduction
Part I. The Present Past
2. The Dreaming
3. Placing the Dreaming: The Archaeology of a Sacred Mountain
4. Performing the Dreaming: Ritual in the Arid Zone
5. Symbols of the Dreaming: Rock-Art as Representation
6. The Present Past?
Part II. Presenting the Past
7. Archaeological Trends in Australian Pre-History
8. Seeds of Change
9. Regionalization
10. Conclusion
References
Index
Product details
| Published | 23 Feb 2023 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 264 |
| ISBN | 9781350345003 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 76 bw illus |
| Dimensions | 297 x 210 mm |
| Series | New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
