Jim,
Whilst we have the 'wheel' in our minds it is well to remember the Ockham's
Razor programme of June 1998 and repeated yesterday for obvious reasons. A
transcript of this talk is now available.
But the thesis of the talk is that Aboriginal Peoples had no use for the
wheel because of the nature of the country. Instead they leapfrogged the
wheel and invented the aerofoil - the boomerang - 30,000 years before
Europeans did. This turned out to be far more useful to them than the wheel.
I remember when traveling along the Top End seeing many garden spaces
outlined by rocks that were originally set up by the Malaccans, yet they
never persuaded the Aboriginal peoples to follow their lead. I have spoken
to several Old people about this and they all said the same thing, "We did
not need gardens." I can go along with that because I know from experience
that the Top End is literally full of tucker almost all the time.
This is an interesting read.
By the way the programme will be repeated this evening on Radio National.
_________________________________________________________
Ian Henderson Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Murdoch University Tel: 61-8-9418-3972
Murdoch
Western Australia 6150.
Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced -- even a proverb is no
proverb till your life has illustrated it. -- John Keats
Something for Ruddock...
While we still have the "wheel" in our minds...
from: http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/racegallery/
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