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From my reading, 'anthropology' was all the rage in the 18th C. (ie from initial contact): and has continued ever since.Thus I have removed sentence which claims otherwise. Eric A. Warbuton 03:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)'
The term 'arid' has a technical definition of 'less than 250mm pa' from Groves 'Australian vegetation' (This is an encyclopedia-not the womans weekly-so can we be accurate) which is less than 40% of the land mass of Aust. And importantly the majority of tribal Aboriginals do not live in these areas- they live in the tropics and sub tropics. Also I dont know the reason for leaving 'remote' in the text is: it adds nothing to it. Can someone tell me? Eric A. Warbuton 06:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
You initially said the issue was POV, not accuracy. If you can show that the majority of Aboriginal people live in areas which are not technically "arid," fine, delete it. I have no problems with deleting "remote" or replacing it with a less eurocentric word. Adam 08:20, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
In the section on migration there is the phrase 'repeated episodes of extended glaciation' which I cant get my head round. In the period being talked about Im led to believe that there was a slow retreat from say 10,000bp. So are the dates correct as they now read in the text? Do they need adjusting? Can you provide some refs on the above process for us to peruse? Eric A. Warbuton 02:22, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well: the context is at the end of the pleistocene epoch where there weren't 'repeated episodes of extended glaciation' : there was only deglaciation from at least 10000bp: can you provide refs to show otherwise? Eric A. Warbuton 08:37, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well to achieve accuracy and momentum in the paragraph I'd remove this sentence: 'Repeated episodes of extended glaciation resulted in decreases of sea levels by some 100-150m' as it now stands it clogs it up with notions that are to vague and though of great importance should belong elsewhere. Yes? Eric A. Warbuton 09:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
The point of the sentence is that humans migrated to Australia during the last major glaciation in the northern hemisphere, which caused sea-levels world-wide to fall, creating the land-bridge to Australia. Someone should write a clear sentence to that effect. Adam 09:08, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, 10,000y bp Tasmania was glaciated and the treeline in Victoria was at 600m so conditions in the N hemisphere are not the point. The direct mention of global glaciation wouldl be complex and problematic as over the last 70000 years there has been much flux of ice, as Mr Wright has rightly mentioned and if it is to be discussed I dont think this the correct text for it to go. Eric A. Warbuton 09:19, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Uh, yes, conditions in the northern hemisphere are the point. Glaciation in the southern hemisphere was trivial by comparison, because the land area down here is much smaller than up there. Glaciers don't float. It was the glaciation of Eurasia and North America that locked up all the water and made sea levels drop, so that humans could walk to Australia. Adam 10:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Can someone add another chapter about how the tribe leader is chosen or who can marry who and so on. Efansay 09:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
What do we make of this?
http://www.flagsociety.org.au/The_Savage_Frontier.htm
Theredchief ( talk) 10:36, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
Theredchief, this material is seriously outdated and mistaken. It was based upon the idea that Aborigines as seen in the 1850-1900 period were not the first inhabitants of Australia, but dispossessed an earlier "race" just as the Europeans were now "dispossessing" the Aboriginal inhabitants. This first race, presumed to be closer to the "apes" was the "negritto" found as pigmy races in the Highlands in New Guinea, various pre-Malay people's of South East Asia, the Andaman islanders, and the pignies of Africa. The racist theories upon which this was based have been thoroughly discredited and disproven. It now has only historical interest, although various racists still "trot it out" from time to time. Hope this helps, John D. Croft ( talk) 11:47, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
What about the sources the author relied on as current and correct? I'd question whether it is racist to claim aborigines were part of a second wave of immigration.
It's interesting that Boomerangs were found in King Tut's tomb [1].
Was there really a land bridge to New Guinea and is there only evidence of a curly haired race in Tasmania and no dingoes?
If you read the whole book, he said evidence of a pre-historic stone quarry was discovered in NSW one time, and academics were quick to attribute it to aboriginal society, even though aborigines apparently avoided heavy manual labor.
Theredchief ( talk) 03:02, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
I know, I've seen that thread, and believe that editor was hard done by and was essentially dismissed out of hand.
Theredchief ( talk) 10:43, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: http://valeriebarrow.com/upload/Ancient-Egyptians-in-Australia.pdf and possibly other sources; see, for example, duplication detector. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Moonriddengirl (talk) 19:53, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
i'm parking some links here for further work, maybe should also be in History_of_Indigenous_Australians &/or History_of_Australia#Aboriginal_Australia but this seems like a good start because of the "Culture and technology" section.
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps / Baiame's Ngunnhu State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage
"Fishers and Farmers: historicising the Gunditjmara freshwater fishery, western Victoria" Ian J. McNiven and Damein Bell, The La Trobe Journal, No 85, May 2010
Figure 15 Pencil sketch plan of an extensive eel channel facility covering 6ha, near Mt William (Robinson journal, 9 July 1841)
Figure 16 Aboriginal pencil drawing of an extensive eel channel facility at Mt William (Robinson journal, 18 July 1841)
"No Stone Unturned" Broadcast: 17/05/2015 5:27:25 PM, Reporter: Prue Adams, Landline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
David Woodward ☮ ♡♢☞☽ 12:51, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
The text states that fires became frequent over the last 70000 years a.o. because of human activity, but this is confusing since there were certainly no humans in Australia 70000 years ago. Probably the meaning is that the initial fires had natural causes but later fires may in part have been caused by humans. Please correct. Helenuh ( talk) 09:37, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
No matter about this, but this paragraph is cleary unbalanced: Archaeological evidence (in the form of charcoal) indicates that fire, over 100,000 years (from ash deposits in the Coral Sea) was already a growing part of the Australian landscape.[26] Over the last 70,000 years it became much more frequent as hunter-gatherers used it as a tool to drive game, to produce a green flush of new growth to attract animals, and to open up impenetrable forest.[27] Densely grown areas became more open sclerophyll forest, open forest became grassland. Fire-tolerant species became predominant: in particular, eucalyptus, acacia, banksia, casuarina and grasses. The changes to the fauna were even more dramatic: the megafauna, species significantly larger than humans, disappeared, and many of the smaller species disappeared too. The direct cause of the mass extinctions is uncertain: it may have been fire, hunting, climate change or a combination of all or any of these factors, although the rapid decline of many species is still a matter of dispute.[29] With no large herbivores to keep the understorey vegetation down and rapidly recycle soil nutrients with their dung, fuel build-up became more rapid and fires burned hotter, further changing the landscape.
Those are frankly speaking, WEASEL WORDS to describe what happened in Australia 50,000 yrs ago. Evidently a lot of editors are posed their knowledge with Flannery babbling, that is itself, barely scientific, just like the 'blitzkrieg' model, that in Australia simply wouldn'work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.11.0.22 ( talk) 18:55, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
This article has huge amounts missing in terms of description of Aboriginal life pre-colonisation, a subject which is of great interest to many people. Books on this from the 1800s to 1900s are abundant and easy to access (Tom Petrie, William Buckley, Douglas Lockwood etc.), and some tribes in Australia still practice culture (Martu people of WA, Yolngu of NT etc.). PDFs of Yolngu law as it has been practiced for 1000s of years has been written down by the elders for the broader public to understand, and is easy to access with a google search. Is there any particular reason for this? Alabama81bornandbred ( talk) 10:09, 11 December 2017 (UTC)
My first time on this article. Randomly arrived here through another article. The current name space Prehistory of Australia is derogatory to the victims of British empire (aborigines). Lede says, "This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because there was no consistent written documentation of human events before 1788."
This may be totally unintentional in goodfaith, but sorry to say, this sounds ignorant or racist, specially from the perspective of the indigenous people. If colonial masters (or we editors) are ignorant of something then it does not mean that thing did not exist. Facts still exist even if no one knows about them. Current title comes across as racist, colonial-supremacist or old world-centric.
Having a written document is not the only criteria or way of knowing the history. We have enough knowledge of precolonial history through various other scientific means, such as archaeology, scientific dating, anthropology, and so on. Please move the article space to a accurate and fair title, e.g. Precolonial history of Australia or History of aborigines dominated era of Australia, or some such title determined by the other experienced Australian history buffs among editors on this talkpage. Thanks. 202.156.182.84 ( talk) 00:21, 5 April 2018 (UTC)
History ... is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory.
Prehistory is the period of human activity between the use of the first stone tools c. 3.3 million years ago and the invention of writing systems ...
The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is often known as the protohistory of the culture.
Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.
List of time periods has the
Questions: Please add your own questions and/or answers.
Please participate: Please invite others who you think might be able to shed more light. Silent and shy readers please provide your opinion on the discussion above. There are no right or wrong answers. Please do not be shy. Additional reading - History of the world (this article uses the old world-centric classification) and Periodization (for general reading). Thanks. 202.156.182.84 ( talk) 21:57, 6 April 2018 (UTC)
Prehistory versus History
I think there is a misconception among many regarding the origin and purpose of the term prehistory and how it differs from history. The distinction between the terms has generally been about distinguishing the methods and sources used in writing the about the past. The period of written records, (on paper, parchment, stone, etc), is the accepted realm of historians. Even those historians publishing on the period of humanity prior to written records, generally rely on the writings of archaeologists, anthropologists and prehistorians, who in turn use as their primary method, non written sources - archaeological excavation, field survey, analysis of artefacts, C14, dendrochronology and other dating methods, etc. Note that the History of Indigenous Australians article deals with the period prior to European conquest/colonisation, under the section History_of_Indigenous_Australians#Long_prehistory_in_Australia. The term prehistory does not stem from a denigration of a particular group's past, or claims of inferiority. If anything, it recognises that the methods and values applied to European History are not appropriate to understanding the past of Australia's original inhabitants. Precolonial would be far worse, as it defines Aboriginal past entirely in terms of the conquerer's impact. In Australia the issue is complicated by the relatively recent introduction of written sources to the continent (the prehistory in Iraq dates to before the Sumerians, (c,3-3500BC), in Britain to before the Romans (c.50AD), but in Australia it dates to before 1788, (apart from a few sporadic mentions in south east Asian and European explorer's documents). The Australia issues is also impacted by the politics of dispossession and appropriation of the past, so that any discussion of Aboriginal history by white people is suspect from the aboriginal point of vies. If you are going to change Prehistory of Australia to something else, then better get working on Prehistory of India, Prehistory of Central Asia, Prehistory of Iran and all the similarly-termed articles such as: Prehistoric Africa, Prehistoric China, Prehistoric Iberia, etc, etc, Garyvines ( talk) 12:54, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
Could anyone please tell me if I should have changed it to "the " Diprotodontidae family" instead? Sorry to passive-aggressively brag about adding italics to the article in this section's heading, by the way, but I didn't want to be dishonest by leaving out the italics here.-- Thylacine24 ( talk) 01:02, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Why is this article below contradicted this article that seemed to suggest that written records of the area started in 1606, yet the "Prehistory"(in quotes for obvious reasons) of Australia article says written records of the area started in 1788?
/info/en/?search=European_exploration_of_Australia
Even more contradictions are found here... "Indonesian "Bajau" fishermen from the Spice Islands (e.g. Banda) have fished off the coast of Australia for hundreds of years. Macassan traders from Sulawesi regularly visited the coast of northern Australia to fish for trepang, an edible sea cucumber to trade with the Chinese since at least the early 18th century."
And Indonesia have written records back then too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thebeatles2020 ( talk • contribs) 10:21, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
I think using the term "Stone Age" in reference to the Indigenous history of Australia is very problematic. It gives the idea that the Aboriginal people of that time period was very basic compared to the white people. https://theconversation.com/australian-archaeologists-dropped-the-term-stone-age-decades-ago-and-so-should-you-47275 2001:8003:6C22:F601:8DCF:EA43:A4EB:CFDA ( talk) 04:25, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
So should we remove the word "Stone Age"? 2001:8003:6C22:F601:8DCF:EA43:A4EB:CFDA ( talk) 09:57, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
I would like to propose preserving the first article name. 'Prehistory' is no longer used to describe the precolonial period of Australian history and is considered a biased tem by most Australuan archaeologists and those hostorians who engage with Aboriginal history. There is considerable overlap in the existing articles in any case. Garyvines ( talk) 11:16, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
At one time, not sooo long ago, this was a strong candidate for the oldest human remain in Australia. It is still a relevant item and should be mentioned in the article. Kdammers ( talk) 05:30, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
The section Culture and Technology contains this paragraph: "The initiation of young boys and girls into adult knowledge was marked by ceremony and feasting. Initiation rites included female genital mutilation, ritual gang raping, penile subincision."
Surely these three things were not the only types of initiation rituals. Listing only these three examples, regardless of whether they are documented by reliable sources, contravenes WP:NPOV
Moreover, to a reader, it comes across as though whoever wrote this went through sources to look for most contentious examples of initiation rites. Regardless of whether that was their actual intention, it creates the appearance of a lack of neutrality.
I propose that the paragraph be replaced with a summary including a broad range of examples of the types of initiation rituals noted in historical literature - not just restricted to specific examples of rituals that readers would find offensive or unacceptable. 121.200.4.5 ( talk) 03:56, 10 December 2023 (UTC)
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
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From my reading, 'anthropology' was all the rage in the 18th C. (ie from initial contact): and has continued ever since.Thus I have removed sentence which claims otherwise. Eric A. Warbuton 03:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)'
The term 'arid' has a technical definition of 'less than 250mm pa' from Groves 'Australian vegetation' (This is an encyclopedia-not the womans weekly-so can we be accurate) which is less than 40% of the land mass of Aust. And importantly the majority of tribal Aboriginals do not live in these areas- they live in the tropics and sub tropics. Also I dont know the reason for leaving 'remote' in the text is: it adds nothing to it. Can someone tell me? Eric A. Warbuton 06:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
You initially said the issue was POV, not accuracy. If you can show that the majority of Aboriginal people live in areas which are not technically "arid," fine, delete it. I have no problems with deleting "remote" or replacing it with a less eurocentric word. Adam 08:20, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
In the section on migration there is the phrase 'repeated episodes of extended glaciation' which I cant get my head round. In the period being talked about Im led to believe that there was a slow retreat from say 10,000bp. So are the dates correct as they now read in the text? Do they need adjusting? Can you provide some refs on the above process for us to peruse? Eric A. Warbuton 02:22, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well: the context is at the end of the pleistocene epoch where there weren't 'repeated episodes of extended glaciation' : there was only deglaciation from at least 10000bp: can you provide refs to show otherwise? Eric A. Warbuton 08:37, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well to achieve accuracy and momentum in the paragraph I'd remove this sentence: 'Repeated episodes of extended glaciation resulted in decreases of sea levels by some 100-150m' as it now stands it clogs it up with notions that are to vague and though of great importance should belong elsewhere. Yes? Eric A. Warbuton 09:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
The point of the sentence is that humans migrated to Australia during the last major glaciation in the northern hemisphere, which caused sea-levels world-wide to fall, creating the land-bridge to Australia. Someone should write a clear sentence to that effect. Adam 09:08, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, 10,000y bp Tasmania was glaciated and the treeline in Victoria was at 600m so conditions in the N hemisphere are not the point. The direct mention of global glaciation wouldl be complex and problematic as over the last 70000 years there has been much flux of ice, as Mr Wright has rightly mentioned and if it is to be discussed I dont think this the correct text for it to go. Eric A. Warbuton 09:19, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Uh, yes, conditions in the northern hemisphere are the point. Glaciation in the southern hemisphere was trivial by comparison, because the land area down here is much smaller than up there. Glaciers don't float. It was the glaciation of Eurasia and North America that locked up all the water and made sea levels drop, so that humans could walk to Australia. Adam 10:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Can someone add another chapter about how the tribe leader is chosen or who can marry who and so on. Efansay 09:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
What do we make of this?
http://www.flagsociety.org.au/The_Savage_Frontier.htm
Theredchief ( talk) 10:36, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
Theredchief, this material is seriously outdated and mistaken. It was based upon the idea that Aborigines as seen in the 1850-1900 period were not the first inhabitants of Australia, but dispossessed an earlier "race" just as the Europeans were now "dispossessing" the Aboriginal inhabitants. This first race, presumed to be closer to the "apes" was the "negritto" found as pigmy races in the Highlands in New Guinea, various pre-Malay people's of South East Asia, the Andaman islanders, and the pignies of Africa. The racist theories upon which this was based have been thoroughly discredited and disproven. It now has only historical interest, although various racists still "trot it out" from time to time. Hope this helps, John D. Croft ( talk) 11:47, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
What about the sources the author relied on as current and correct? I'd question whether it is racist to claim aborigines were part of a second wave of immigration.
It's interesting that Boomerangs were found in King Tut's tomb [1].
Was there really a land bridge to New Guinea and is there only evidence of a curly haired race in Tasmania and no dingoes?
If you read the whole book, he said evidence of a pre-historic stone quarry was discovered in NSW one time, and academics were quick to attribute it to aboriginal society, even though aborigines apparently avoided heavy manual labor.
Theredchief ( talk) 03:02, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
I know, I've seen that thread, and believe that editor was hard done by and was essentially dismissed out of hand.
Theredchief ( talk) 10:43, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: http://valeriebarrow.com/upload/Ancient-Egyptians-in-Australia.pdf and possibly other sources; see, for example, duplication detector. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Moonriddengirl (talk) 19:53, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
i'm parking some links here for further work, maybe should also be in History_of_Indigenous_Australians &/or History_of_Australia#Aboriginal_Australia but this seems like a good start because of the "Culture and technology" section.
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps / Baiame's Ngunnhu State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage
"Fishers and Farmers: historicising the Gunditjmara freshwater fishery, western Victoria" Ian J. McNiven and Damein Bell, The La Trobe Journal, No 85, May 2010
Figure 15 Pencil sketch plan of an extensive eel channel facility covering 6ha, near Mt William (Robinson journal, 9 July 1841)
Figure 16 Aboriginal pencil drawing of an extensive eel channel facility at Mt William (Robinson journal, 18 July 1841)
"No Stone Unturned" Broadcast: 17/05/2015 5:27:25 PM, Reporter: Prue Adams, Landline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
David Woodward ☮ ♡♢☞☽ 12:51, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
The text states that fires became frequent over the last 70000 years a.o. because of human activity, but this is confusing since there were certainly no humans in Australia 70000 years ago. Probably the meaning is that the initial fires had natural causes but later fires may in part have been caused by humans. Please correct. Helenuh ( talk) 09:37, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
No matter about this, but this paragraph is cleary unbalanced: Archaeological evidence (in the form of charcoal) indicates that fire, over 100,000 years (from ash deposits in the Coral Sea) was already a growing part of the Australian landscape.[26] Over the last 70,000 years it became much more frequent as hunter-gatherers used it as a tool to drive game, to produce a green flush of new growth to attract animals, and to open up impenetrable forest.[27] Densely grown areas became more open sclerophyll forest, open forest became grassland. Fire-tolerant species became predominant: in particular, eucalyptus, acacia, banksia, casuarina and grasses. The changes to the fauna were even more dramatic: the megafauna, species significantly larger than humans, disappeared, and many of the smaller species disappeared too. The direct cause of the mass extinctions is uncertain: it may have been fire, hunting, climate change or a combination of all or any of these factors, although the rapid decline of many species is still a matter of dispute.[29] With no large herbivores to keep the understorey vegetation down and rapidly recycle soil nutrients with their dung, fuel build-up became more rapid and fires burned hotter, further changing the landscape.
Those are frankly speaking, WEASEL WORDS to describe what happened in Australia 50,000 yrs ago. Evidently a lot of editors are posed their knowledge with Flannery babbling, that is itself, barely scientific, just like the 'blitzkrieg' model, that in Australia simply wouldn'work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.11.0.22 ( talk) 18:55, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
This article has huge amounts missing in terms of description of Aboriginal life pre-colonisation, a subject which is of great interest to many people. Books on this from the 1800s to 1900s are abundant and easy to access (Tom Petrie, William Buckley, Douglas Lockwood etc.), and some tribes in Australia still practice culture (Martu people of WA, Yolngu of NT etc.). PDFs of Yolngu law as it has been practiced for 1000s of years has been written down by the elders for the broader public to understand, and is easy to access with a google search. Is there any particular reason for this? Alabama81bornandbred ( talk) 10:09, 11 December 2017 (UTC)
My first time on this article. Randomly arrived here through another article. The current name space Prehistory of Australia is derogatory to the victims of British empire (aborigines). Lede says, "This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because there was no consistent written documentation of human events before 1788."
This may be totally unintentional in goodfaith, but sorry to say, this sounds ignorant or racist, specially from the perspective of the indigenous people. If colonial masters (or we editors) are ignorant of something then it does not mean that thing did not exist. Facts still exist even if no one knows about them. Current title comes across as racist, colonial-supremacist or old world-centric.
Having a written document is not the only criteria or way of knowing the history. We have enough knowledge of precolonial history through various other scientific means, such as archaeology, scientific dating, anthropology, and so on. Please move the article space to a accurate and fair title, e.g. Precolonial history of Australia or History of aborigines dominated era of Australia, or some such title determined by the other experienced Australian history buffs among editors on this talkpage. Thanks. 202.156.182.84 ( talk) 00:21, 5 April 2018 (UTC)
History ... is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory.
Prehistory is the period of human activity between the use of the first stone tools c. 3.3 million years ago and the invention of writing systems ...
The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is often known as the protohistory of the culture.
Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.
List of time periods has the
Questions: Please add your own questions and/or answers.
Please participate: Please invite others who you think might be able to shed more light. Silent and shy readers please provide your opinion on the discussion above. There are no right or wrong answers. Please do not be shy. Additional reading - History of the world (this article uses the old world-centric classification) and Periodization (for general reading). Thanks. 202.156.182.84 ( talk) 21:57, 6 April 2018 (UTC)
Prehistory versus History
I think there is a misconception among many regarding the origin and purpose of the term prehistory and how it differs from history. The distinction between the terms has generally been about distinguishing the methods and sources used in writing the about the past. The period of written records, (on paper, parchment, stone, etc), is the accepted realm of historians. Even those historians publishing on the period of humanity prior to written records, generally rely on the writings of archaeologists, anthropologists and prehistorians, who in turn use as their primary method, non written sources - archaeological excavation, field survey, analysis of artefacts, C14, dendrochronology and other dating methods, etc. Note that the History of Indigenous Australians article deals with the period prior to European conquest/colonisation, under the section History_of_Indigenous_Australians#Long_prehistory_in_Australia. The term prehistory does not stem from a denigration of a particular group's past, or claims of inferiority. If anything, it recognises that the methods and values applied to European History are not appropriate to understanding the past of Australia's original inhabitants. Precolonial would be far worse, as it defines Aboriginal past entirely in terms of the conquerer's impact. In Australia the issue is complicated by the relatively recent introduction of written sources to the continent (the prehistory in Iraq dates to before the Sumerians, (c,3-3500BC), in Britain to before the Romans (c.50AD), but in Australia it dates to before 1788, (apart from a few sporadic mentions in south east Asian and European explorer's documents). The Australia issues is also impacted by the politics of dispossession and appropriation of the past, so that any discussion of Aboriginal history by white people is suspect from the aboriginal point of vies. If you are going to change Prehistory of Australia to something else, then better get working on Prehistory of India, Prehistory of Central Asia, Prehistory of Iran and all the similarly-termed articles such as: Prehistoric Africa, Prehistoric China, Prehistoric Iberia, etc, etc, Garyvines ( talk) 12:54, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
Could anyone please tell me if I should have changed it to "the " Diprotodontidae family" instead? Sorry to passive-aggressively brag about adding italics to the article in this section's heading, by the way, but I didn't want to be dishonest by leaving out the italics here.-- Thylacine24 ( talk) 01:02, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Why is this article below contradicted this article that seemed to suggest that written records of the area started in 1606, yet the "Prehistory"(in quotes for obvious reasons) of Australia article says written records of the area started in 1788?
/info/en/?search=European_exploration_of_Australia
Even more contradictions are found here... "Indonesian "Bajau" fishermen from the Spice Islands (e.g. Banda) have fished off the coast of Australia for hundreds of years. Macassan traders from Sulawesi regularly visited the coast of northern Australia to fish for trepang, an edible sea cucumber to trade with the Chinese since at least the early 18th century."
And Indonesia have written records back then too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thebeatles2020 ( talk • contribs) 10:21, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
I think using the term "Stone Age" in reference to the Indigenous history of Australia is very problematic. It gives the idea that the Aboriginal people of that time period was very basic compared to the white people. https://theconversation.com/australian-archaeologists-dropped-the-term-stone-age-decades-ago-and-so-should-you-47275 2001:8003:6C22:F601:8DCF:EA43:A4EB:CFDA ( talk) 04:25, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
So should we remove the word "Stone Age"? 2001:8003:6C22:F601:8DCF:EA43:A4EB:CFDA ( talk) 09:57, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
I would like to propose preserving the first article name. 'Prehistory' is no longer used to describe the precolonial period of Australian history and is considered a biased tem by most Australuan archaeologists and those hostorians who engage with Aboriginal history. There is considerable overlap in the existing articles in any case. Garyvines ( talk) 11:16, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
At one time, not sooo long ago, this was a strong candidate for the oldest human remain in Australia. It is still a relevant item and should be mentioned in the article. Kdammers ( talk) 05:30, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
The section Culture and Technology contains this paragraph: "The initiation of young boys and girls into adult knowledge was marked by ceremony and feasting. Initiation rites included female genital mutilation, ritual gang raping, penile subincision."
Surely these three things were not the only types of initiation rituals. Listing only these three examples, regardless of whether they are documented by reliable sources, contravenes WP:NPOV
Moreover, to a reader, it comes across as though whoever wrote this went through sources to look for most contentious examples of initiation rites. Regardless of whether that was their actual intention, it creates the appearance of a lack of neutrality.
I propose that the paragraph be replaced with a summary including a broad range of examples of the types of initiation rituals noted in historical literature - not just restricted to specific examples of rituals that readers would find offensive or unacceptable. 121.200.4.5 ( talk) 03:56, 10 December 2023 (UTC)