Lesson One: the History of an Australian Hunter-Gatherer Culture
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 449 062 SO 032 139 AUTHOR Waldron, John TITLE Lesson One: The History of an Australian Hunter-Gatherer Culture. Australian Studies High School Series. History Unit INSTITUTION Australian Education Office, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 13p.; Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade through the Embassy of Australia's. Cultural Affairs Office, Washington, D.C. For the other lessons in this series, see SO 032 140-142. AVAILABLE FROM Australian Education Office, 1601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036; Tel: 202-332-8285; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://austudies.org/aeo/index.html. PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom - Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Anthropology; Area Studies; Beliefs; *Cultural Context; Foreign Countries; Geography; High Schools; *Indigenous Populations; *Life Style; Material Culture; Social Studies; *World History IDENTIFIERS *Aboriginal Australians; *Australia (Tasmania); Australian History; Historical Background ABSTRACT This ,.lesson, one of_four_stand-alone_lessons that examine Australia as an aspect of world history, is designed to teach students about hunter-gatherer societies in the context of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. Tasmania represents a particularly useful site for the study of hunter-gatherer societies because it is geographically isolated, even from mainland Australia; the Tasmanian Aborigines used a simple tool kit, close to original hunter-gatherer lifestyles; and the hunter-gatherer lifestyle persisted in Tasmania until the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century. The lesson has three parts. In part one, students examine the "material culture" of aboriginal society, the collection of artifacts, known as the Tasmanian tool kit, which were used every day for food gathering, hunting, and carrying. In part two, students explore the connection between geography and lifestyle, using a map to locate available resources and to chart the migration patterns of hypothetical hunter-gatherer groups. In part three, students explore Aboriginal beliefs by examining Tasmanian spiritual concepts and then making their own legends, customs, and art in the Aboriginal style. The lesson contains a teacher introduction, three handouts (with a teacher answer key for the first handout), suggested activities for each part, and follow-up activities. (BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Lesson One: The History of an Australian Hunter-Gatherer Culture. Australian Studies High School Series. Waldron, John Australian Education Office, Washington, DC. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization 1,114_ D_Ut115 /originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. BESTCOPYAVAILABLE 2 Lesson One: The History of an Australian Hunter- tsostvallanStudies Gatherer Culture dto Teacher Introduction dred people. Their religion was based on ,ce The following lesson is designed to teach observation of natural forces and musings 19hSchool Se students about hunter-gatherer societies in about creation and the spirit world. the context of Tasmanian Aboriginal cul- ture.Tasmania represents a particularly Later, rising sea levels at the end of the Ice useful site for the study of hunter-gatherer Age cut Tasmania off from the mainland, societies for several reasons.It was geo- causing Tasmanian culture to develop inde- graphically isolated, even from mainland pendently.The Tasmanians shed many Australia, by the rise of sea levels about itemsfrom themorecomplicated 10,500yearsago. The Tasmanian Australian tool kit, and never utilized tools Aborigines used a very simple tool kit, clos- such as the boomerang, hafted tools (tools er to original hunter-gatherer lifestyles. mounted on a wooden shaft or handle) or Finally, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle persist- spear throwers. The dingo, a familiar site edin Tasmaniauntilthearrivalof on the mainland, never made it to Tasmania Europeans in the 19th century, so that its (this indicates that the dingo arrived in patterns and culture could be recorded Australia after the rise of sea levels). The directly by these settlers.Tasmania thus Tasmanians thus adopted a simple lifestyle, represents an ideal "laboratory study" of dropping tools for which they had no use the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, uninfluenced and relying only on a few artifacts.They by the outside world and subject to first- lived in bands (extended family units) of hand observation in modern times. between 40 and 80 people.These bands were in turn organized into tribes, consist- Materials for Lesson The lesson is broken into three parts, each ing of 5-15 bands, totaling between 250 Handout #1: The Tasmanian one central to an understanding of the and 700 people. Tasmania was occupied by Tool Kit (answer key for the Aboriginal hunting and gathering lifestyle. 9 tribes prior to the arrival of Europeans, teacher on back of the handout) In part one, students examine the material giving Tasmania a total population of about Handout #2: Map of the culture of aboriginal society the collec- 4000. These Tasmanians never developed Territory of a Northwestern tion of man-made artifacts (objects shaped literacy or agriculture, two innovations that Tasmanian Band or created by the hand of man) which they European culture took as signs of an Handout #3: Evidence of used every day for food gathering, hunting, advanced civilization. Abstract Thought carrying, etc. Together, they are known as the Tasmanian tool kit.In part two, stu- Many Europeans cited the simple nature of dents explore the connection between Tasmanian hunter-gatherer culture as a jus- geography and lifestyle, by examining the tification for displacing them from the land. resources available to Tasmanians on a map, According to this view, Tasmanians could and using this map to chart the migration not survive when exposed to the advanced Objectives patterns of hypothetical hunter-gatherer ways of Europeans.For many years, Australian history viewed the Tasmanians as Students will... groups.In part three, students explore Aboriginal beliefs by examining Tasmanian a tragically doomed people, part of a recognize the items in the regrettable past, but no longer relevant to Tasmanian tool kit spiritual concepts, and then making up the Australian experience. analyze these items and deter- their own legends, customs and art in the Aboriginal style. mine their uses Contrary to this early European view, the interpret data to determine the Tasmanian lifestyle was a close adaptation lifestyles and belief structures of Historical Background to their specific environment. When exam- amodelfor Archeologists have determined that the first Tasmaniansas ining the attached page on the Tasmanian hunter-gatherer societies people migrated to Tasmania over 20,000 tool kit, observe how each item was used explore the role of geography in years ago. At the time, Tasmania was con- for a specific purpose, could be easily fabri- the hunter-gatherer lifestyle nected to mainland Australia by a land link their new knowledge of bridge, and had a culture similar to that of cated from local materials, was easily trans- ported, and provided for a vital material or Tasmania tohunter-gatherers the mainlanders. They lived off the land, spiritual need. The Tasmanians had every- elsewhere, and investigate the primarily by hunting, fishing and gathering thing they needed, and if they didn't need reasons for the development of edible plants. They lived in family groups, it, they didn't have it. agriculture clans and tribes of no more than a few hun- 3 Australian Education Office May be reproduced for educational purposes only. In fact Tasmanian Aborigines had a better diet and more other colonists beginning in 1803. At first, Tasmanians and leisure time than most "modern" Europeans. They were able Europeans lived side by side in peace. Over time, however, to turn this leisure time to artistic expression, abstract thought Europeans and their agricultural lifestyle began to displace the and contemplation of the Dreamtimethe unrecorded past Tasmanians. A period of guerrilla warfare raged from settle- in which their furthest-back ancestors created the world in ment until about 1835, causing the destruction of the their dreams. For the history teacher, the Dreamtime repre- Tasmanian way of life.The last full-blooded Tasmanian sents the earliest human view of history, before the time in Aborigine, Truganini, died in 1876. However, many people which humans made written records. of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent survive today, particularly in northern Tasmania. A new way of thinking has developed in Much of what we know about the Tasmanians comes from Australia which acknowledges their continued existence, and direct observations of Europeans, beginning with the arrival recognizes their accomplishments in the period prior to of the Dutch expedition of Abel Tasman in 1642, and culmi- European settlement. nating in the settlement of Tasmania by British convicts and Credits Images of Tasmanian Aboriginal artifacts A C, F & H I, from Aboriginal People of Tasmania, Tasmanian Museum