Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The palaeoeconomic history of Aboriginal migration
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Conventional views and alternative approaches
- 3 Non-Malthusian issues: pathways and innovations
- 4 Scarcity possibilities in Aboriginal migration
- 5 Some possible migration scenarios
- 6 A synthesis
- Part II Development, structure and function of Aboriginal economy
- Part III Disease, economics and demography
- Part IV The establishment of a bridgehead economy: 1788–1810
- Part V The takeover process: 1788–1850
- Bibliography
- Appendix 1 Preliminary model/checklist of Aboriginal migration to Australia
- Appendix 2 NOAA depth contour maps
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The palaeoeconomic history of Aboriginal migration
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Conventional views and alternative approaches
- 3 Non-Malthusian issues: pathways and innovations
- 4 Scarcity possibilities in Aboriginal migration
- 5 Some possible migration scenarios
- 6 A synthesis
- Part II Development, structure and function of Aboriginal economy
- Part III Disease, economics and demography
- Part IV The establishment of a bridgehead economy: 1788–1810
- Part V The takeover process: 1788–1850
- Bibliography
- Appendix 1 Preliminary model/checklist of Aboriginal migration to Australia
- Appendix 2 NOAA depth contour maps
- Index
Summary
In Australian history, Aboriginal migration is exodus and genesis — exodus from South-east Asia and genesis of the first society and economy in Australia. Economic historians tend to treat countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA as ‘areas of recent settlement’. They generally ignore the fact that prehistorians have demonstrated that all these countries (New Zealand is a qualified exception), far from being ‘recent’, are areas of very ancient settlement. The incorporation of Aboriginal history is of interest in a more general record of human presence in Australia. But even for those with no interest in Aborigines as such, the influence that Aborigines had on British settlement (and vice versa) is far from being a minor consideration in the ‘success’ of European settlement after 1788. Indeed, one important way to look at Australian history in the nineteenth century is to view it in part as a takeover bid.
Here, the focus is on migration. Many Aborigines adopt the position that they have ‘always’ been in Australia. As Europeans perceive the origins of Homo sapiens, this is contrary to the evidence. To the extent that Aborigines have been present in Australia for many millennia, perhaps somewhere between 50–100000 years, the distinction between ‘always’ and this extraordinarily long timespan becomes, as a practical matter, shadowy. Exploration of Aboriginal migration may, then, be of interest to Aborigines for at least two reasons.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Economics and the DreamtimeA Hypothetical History, pp. 8 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993