Re: Australian Aboriginal history (was Re: [asa] The ASA and the Soft Sciences (ASA focus for the future- dreaming))

Michael Roberts wrote:
> You all forget that the Flood took place before the days of Peleg so the
> continents were still one.
>
> So the aborigines could have hopped back to Oz on the back of roos
> without getting their feet wet..
>
> Also Murray you should submit to the superior intellectual grasp of the
> scientists and scholars at AIG

Hi Michael,

I realize you're having a bit of fun here and there's not much worse than a person making a serious response to a tounge-in-cheek posting, but that said...

I think those up on their zoology/biology will know about the Wallace line which divides the Asiatic and Australian animal species (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line). This is basically a broad sea barrier which breaks the chain of islands running between South East Asia and the Australian mainland. It serves pretty much to define the line between the Australian and Asiatic continental plates.

As a reasonably substantial body of water, it is also seen as constituting the boundary which the forebears of Australian Aboriginals had to cross in order to colonize Greater Australia (roughly the landmass made up of Timor, New Guinea, and Australia back when the seas were lower).

Now, that colonization took place by boat (not kangaroo!) - which makes the forbears of the Australian Aboriginals the oldest know sea-faring people on earth. Amongst the the other "firsts" (on the basis of the archaeological evidence) - first use of hafted stone tools, first consumption of marine fish, first use of root vegetables, first use of ritual cremation in burial. This all dates over a range of 20k to 53k years ago (and probably earlier).

Such evidence has lead to the suggestion than the colonization of the Greater Australian region is the first historical evidence of distinctly human behavior.

The basic point is this: those AIG scholars are being VERY selective in the evidence they are appropriating here! There's simply no way to fit the known history of the Aboriginal people into AIG's preferred historical reconstruction of human history.

Sorry for offering a serious response to your little bit of fun, but I hope you found it worthwhile?

Blessings,
Murray Hogg
Pastor, East Camberwell Baptist Church, Victoria, Australia
Chairman, Executive Committee, ISCAST Vic <www.iscast.org>
Post-Grad Student (MTh), Australian College of Theology

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