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Talk:Australian Aborigines (view source)
Revision as of 00:39, January 3, 2009
, 00:39, January 3, 2009→How the aborigines arrived: new section
:::I believe that Darwin himself considered Aborigines as only a little more evolved than the apes, and evolutionary thinking along this line led to Aborigines being shot to become specimens of the missing link in museums. It wasn't just a few "very backward racists", it was the general consensus a century or so ago.
:::I believe that Darwin himself considered Aborigines as only a little more evolved than the apes, and evolutionary thinking along this line led to Aborigines being shot to become specimens of the missing link in museums. It wasn't just a few "very backward racists", it was the general consensus a century or so ago.
:::[[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 22:43, 12 June 2007 (EDT)
:::[[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 22:43, 12 June 2007 (EDT)
== How the aborigines arrived ==
I was interested to see the [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Australian_Aborigines&diff=599663&oldid=576142 latest edit], about how Aborigines arrived in Australia. It's an interesting and valid point, but I have some concerns with the way it's written.
There's two main views on things like this: the evolutionary view and the creationary (biblical) view. I comment below on various statements from the edit, including how they fit (or not) each view:
* "''The only realistic case is that they came over the sea from Indonesia...''": I'd question whether it's the ''only'' realistic view, as long as you are including PNG in that. The route with the shortest individual water crossings is probably via PNG.
* "''...however, this would mean that they had vastly superior boat building skills compared to the rest of the world at that time...''": What time? From a creationary view, we are talking about a very few thousand years ago. From an evolutionary view we are talking 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. From a creationary view, the claim that they must have had better skills that "the rest of the world" is probably incorrect. From a creationary view, they were descended from Noah, who'd built a huge ocean-going vessel.
* "''...(as strong boats would be needed to ferry whole families across the rough sea around Australia).''": I believe I'm right in saying that people can easily cross from PNG to Australia (Cape Yorke Peninsula) via various smaller islands via canoe. I don't know about the other water crossings that would be involved (to get to PNG).
* "''Also, it would appear that, once they reached Australia, they immediately forgot their theoretical boat building skills and never went far out to sea again.''": Perhaps not "immediately", but otherwise that is entirely feasible. Forgetting skills that you don't use is quite common. Although the statement would be correct, as a debating point in the context of how they got here, I think it's largely irrelevant. Keep in mind also that for some there was a further crossing to Tasmania, and that is less feasible in a canoe.
[[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 19:39, 2 January 2009 (EST)