The Dreaming
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology.
It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Walter Baldwin Spencer, and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who later revised his views.
The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of "Everywhen," during which the land was inhabited and created by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities.
The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin of The Dreaming, and certain places have a particular potency of Dreaming, such as Uluru (Ayers rock) Kata Tjuta (Mt. Olga), Wollumbin, and Baiame's cave etc .
Many Aboriginal Australians also refer to the world-creation time as "Dreamtime". The Dreaming laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.
The Dreaming is also used as a term for a system of totemic symbols, so that an Aboriginal person may "own" a specific Dreaming; such as a Kangaroo Dreaming, a Shark Dreaming, a Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreaming's pertinent to their country.
This is because in the Dreaming an individual's entire ancestry exists as one single, continuing cycle; culminating in the idea that all worldly knowledge is accumulated through one's ancestors.
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