Landscapes Rock-Art and the Dreaming

<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 1000 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.</p>