This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingPlaces whose significance is set by the Dreaming, the ancestral order that made the country and remains in it. It is carried in song, narrative and the responsibility of named custodians rather than in anything built on the site. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredA cover term, not a people. Each place belongs to a particular language group and, within it, to particular people who hold the right to speak for it. There is no pan-Aboriginal custodianship and no single Aboriginal religion. 2 Status
Status TodayLiving. These are places under current law and current obligation, not archaeological remains, and the responsibility for them rests with people who are alive now. Much of what is significant about these places is restricted, commonly by gender, by initiation and by relationship to country, and is not released by those who hold it. Material recorded by outsiders and printed without permission is not a release. 2 Learn More
Aboriginal Australian Sacred Sites
This group gathers sacred sites of Aboriginal Australian traditions, places bound to the Dreaming, the ancestral order in which creator beings shaped the land and left their presence in its features. Such sites are living parts of ongoing tradition and law, and many are subject to cultural restrictions.
The browser will find the sites the atlas gathers. The entries describe each place's significance with respect for the traditions that hold it, noting that Aboriginal sacred knowledge is often restricted and that these are the sites of continuing, living cultures.
Practice Status
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Sites grouped for the Australian Aboriginal tradition.
Source Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and WildernessDeborah Bird Rose
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness
Deborah Bird Rose, Australian Heritage Commission, 1996on country, law and custodianship
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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