What happened to the Celts’ oral traditions? How are indigenous Australians’ historical depictions still stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive?
(Is it because ignorant bozos like me are oblivious to them?)
Comment on Ancient Historians v. Modern Historians
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago100% of all history from before writing was invented is lost
Not entirely true. Some aboriginal oral traditions have accurately described the Budj Bim and Tower Hill Eruptions that happened 37k years ago, and the dramatic rise in sea levels 7-10k years ago.
The oral traditions of aboriginal tribes is kinda crazy. During the European colonization of australia there are times where you get to see encounters from written documents by Europeans and the history recalled by oral and dance traditions recorded by aboriginals. They tend to match in everything but perspective and often the aboriginal depictions are often more detailed.
ol_capt_joe@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
While the aboriginals underwent and still endure settler colonialism it hasn’t been as long or quite as thorough as the Roman occupation and then christianization that the celts went through. Australia is also so much bigger than the UK, so it would be hard to complete a very effective act of genocide against spiritual or tribal leaders as they did to the druids.
Even so some Celtic oral traditions were still going on strong up till the 19th century, often being little changed over thousands of years.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 weeks ago
Hey just a language note, Aboriginal is not a noun, we don’t say “aboriginals”. We say “Aboriginal people”.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Ahh, my bad. I am remembering from old American text books from my college days that utilized Aboriginals and Aborigine, both of which i am discovering are incorrect, outdated, and offensive.
My college days were a long time ago and I don’t get many opportunities to speak about aboriginal people, so I’m not surprised I’m behind the times. Thanks for the update!
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Well… The Romanisation of Europe happened.
Zos_Kia@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
Which could be described as a genocide of Celtic people
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
And so many more cultures.
TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
Wiped out by Christinaity, for the most part.
Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
That’s actually amazing that information that old survived the telephone game
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Well, cultures that heavily relied on oral traditions developed systems that prevented a telephone type scenario from happening. Aboriginals combine oral traditions with ceremony, song, dance, and different medias of physical art. They also had respected leaders whose whole position was telling the right stories during specific times, at specific places, and to specific people in the tribe.
Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Fascinating, these people are remarkable
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 weeks ago
Aboriginal cultures have very advanced psychological technology which they use for the preservation of knowledge and the organisation of society. To white people, technology just means machines. But under a more holistic view, technology can be an idea that you use as a tool to do work. And Aboriginal cultures have very advanced mental tools. These tools have preserved knowledge for much longer than any book or clay tablet ever has, thanks to the expertise in psychology which was used to invent them.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And it’s funny to call it primitive communism when the Iriqouian peoples were significantly more politically advanced than Europeans, especially when it came to fair distribution of power and resources.
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Holy shit that’s crazy. Oldest oral history I knew of was only 14,000
DarkSirrush@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
The local Aboriginals to me have oral stories about the most recent ice age.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Yeah, some of the stuff that has been able to be confirmed via geological studies is just insane. It’s crazy to me how they aren’t more widely known for disrupting the idea of prehistory.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Blame the people who don’t look like them but run the country. Anglo fragility won’t give brown people have a chance.
Jesus_666@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I wouldn’t say the idea of prehistory is disrupted per se. But we have to accept that it’s region-dependent. In any given region (recorded) history started when the oldest still available account was preserved.
Some regions are far better at preserving very old accounts than others.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
That’s not how we classically define prehistory though. Technically pre-history is defined as the period of time beginning when the first humans started using stone tools and ending when different cultures developed writing systems.
My criticism is that western scholars put too much importance on the written word.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I assume the big one not the little one. It would be anticlimactic for it to be “you know it got quite a bit colder for a little while before you all showed up”
DarkSirrush@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
I have been told they described the formation of glaciers, so definitely the big one.
Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
If I had money I’d spend all my time learning from these people
TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
Collision Course, or the spinoff, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild?