It was not until the twentieth century that the Australian government began to realize that it had violated the rights of Australian aborigines and began to gradually improve its relations with them. After World War II, the government began to try to assimilate the aborigines, forcing them to live in towns and receive the education of European culture. The real improvement of indigenous human rights began in 1960, when the government set up an indigenous affairs agency, and the indigenous people became the aborigines of Australia, and part of the land was returned to the original aborigines. 1962 indigenous people have gained the right to vote. Now Australian aborigines are favored by many policies.
Indians, also known as Native Americans, are the general name of all Native Americans except Eskimos. When the Italian navigator C. Columbus sailed to America, he mistakenly thought that he was going to India, so he called the natives here "Indians". Although he later discovered his mistake, he once called the law popularization. Therefore, in English and other European languages, Indians are called "West" Indians, and when necessary, real Indians are called "East" Indians for the sake of distinction. In Chinese translation, the word "West India" is directly translated into "Indian" or "Indian", which avoids the trouble of confusion. This race is distributed in North and South America and belongs to the American branch of Mongolian race. The use of Indian languages, including more than a dozen language families, has not been recognized as a language classification.
Ethnic composition:
Indians, yellow people, the oldest inhabitants of America. It is said that it was 15000-25000 years ago and moved in from Asia through the Bering Strait, distributed in North and South America. There are Eskimos and Aleutians in the northernmost part; In North America, there are Gan people, Argentine people, Iroquois people, Sioux people and Muskoch people. In Central America, there are Aztecs, Mayans, Caribs, Chibucha, etc. There are Incas, Guarani and Arraou Gan in South America. This language belongs to the Indo-Chinese family. First planted corn, potatoes, sunflowers, cotton, cinchona trees and other crops, making contributions to mankind. /kloc-Before the 6th century, most of them were still in the matriarchal clan stage, and a few people like Maya, Aztecs and Incas had already formed early slave countries and had quite high culture. Since16th century, it has been destroyed and killed by European colonists, and its development has been interrupted and its population has declined. There are more than 32 million people. Mainly engaged in agriculture. There are about 800,000 people left in North America, most of whom have been driven into the reservation and lead a hard life. In Central America and South America, it is generally discriminated and assimilated by the rulers of the host countries.
marriage customs
The wedding of Indian chiefs has a strong national color. Weddings are usually held in public buildings in Indian settlements, usually a big wooden house. At the wedding, relatives, friends, neighbors and villagers came to the wooden house one after another, and everyone sat on the floor and greeted each other. Men, women and children all wear national costumes with novel styles and bright colors. Although Indians are cheerful, the wedding occasion is very quiet, even if they speak softly.
other
Due to historical reasons, most Indians now live in remote rural areas. Like the Mayans, most other Indians kept their traditional customs. Indians still like to use rough clay pots, stone bowls and wooden spoons when cooking. When someone is sick, they collect herbs, or light them to smoke, or cook soup to bathe them. They still like to wear traditional clothes with their own national characteristics. Maya women in Yucatan Peninsula, regardless of age, wear loose white embroidered skirts and colorful flowers. Men wear loose white trousers, straw hats and sandals. Indian women in the central plateau love to wear embroidered tops and long skirts with vertical stripes. They wear a versatile shawl called "Reboco". This shawl can not only keep out the sun, but also keep out the cold. You can also carry children and pack things. Clothing with national characteristics has become an obvious symbol of Indians. Many Indians still live in primitive houses. In Yucatan Peninsula, the Mayans carved out a flat land in the Woods, used local materials, fixed thick branches on the ground one by one, formed a big circle, and put the big leaves of palm trees on it, and the house was built.
Culture:
In fact, the Mayans are a member of the Indian family. There are 56 Indian nationalities in Mexico, with a total population of about 10% and a population of about 100000. In the past, Indians have always been the masters of this land in Mexico. They created world-famous ancient Indian cultures such as Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Tortek and Aztec, so Mexico became a center of ancient Indian culture. It was not until the Spanish colonists invaded Mexico in 15 19 that the Indians became a minority in Mexico because of slaughter and mixed blood.
Maya culture is one of the most famous ancient cultures in the world and is known as the cradle of American Indian culture. The areas where Mayan culture developed include Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, Tika in Guatemala, Copan in western Honduras, Vasak Tong (the oldest known Mayan city) and parts of Belize and El Salvador, covering an area of about 325,000 square kilometers.
The development of Mayan culture can be divided into three periods: pre-classical period (about BC 1500-3 17), classical period (3 17-889) and post-classical period (889- 1697). The last organized Mayans were conquered by the Spanish in 1697).
Corn agriculture was the most important economic activity of ancient Mayans. They used primitive slash-and-burn farming methods to grow corn, sweet potatoes and other crops, and mastered the technology of raising turkeys, dogs and bees. They can make painted pottery by weaving agave fiber and kapok. In business, Maya mainly engaged in barter trade activities, sometimes using cocoa beans as the common currency. The Mayans are still building, carving, painting and hieroglyphics.
Outstanding achievements have been made in the fields of Chinese characters, astronomy, calendar and mathematics.
At the beginning of 1500 BC, the Mayans entered the era of settled agricultural life. Around A.D., city-states gradually formed. Around 300-900 AD, Mayan civilization reached its peak, with more than 65,438+000 city-states. These cities are populous, well-organized, magnificent in architecture and rich in culture. Religion occupies a very important position in Mayan culture, and the temple where grand sacrificial activities are held is built on the pyramid as an altar, which is very spectacular. Sacrifice to the victims is an important form of Mayan worship, including food, decorations and even the living.
Maya made great achievements in bust sculpture and bas-relief. Mayan paintings generally take the form of murals, in which the portrayal of characters is expressive. In addition, there are gorgeous pictures on pottery and metal plates.
Around AD, the Mayans independently created hieroglyphics. They flattened the bark strips, soaked them with gum, then coated them with a layer of hydrated lime, painted on the bark strips, and wrote hieroglyphs, numbers, gods and animal images. The ancient Mayan language consists of more than 800 kinds of figures and symbols, with words juxtaposed with color pictures. Many manuscripts recorded Mayan history, myths and legends and calendars, but most of them were regarded as "devil's" by Spanish colonists.
The work is on fire. So far, only three ancient Mayan manuscripts have been preserved, all of which are collected in European museums. In addition to manuscripts, ancient Mayan languages are also preserved in the inscriptions of stone pillars, stone tablets and ancient buildings. The Mayans attached great importance to history, and set up a stone pillar in some city-states every 20 years to record important events in Mayan language. Therefore, Maya culture is the only culture with a clear chronological basis in ancient American history. The Mayan tradition of recording the history of columns lasted for more than 1200 years, which was interrupted by the invasion of Spanish colonists.
The Mayan calendar was born in BC, with 13 days as a week, 20 days as January, 18 months as a year, plus 5 days as taboo days, 365 days a year and 52 years as a cycle. Mayan calendar is more accurate than ancient Greek calendar and Roman calendar. The Mayans also built some astronomical observatories, which can calculate the time of solar eclipse and the periods of the moon and planets.
The Mayans made outstanding achievements in mathematics. They used the * * * of fingers and toes to calculate, and adopted the calculation method of twenty digits. It is particularly worth mentioning that the Mayans knew how to apply the concept of zero seven or eight hundred years earlier than Europe.
In the post-classical period of Mayan culture, due to natural and man-made disasters such as hurricanes, plagues and wars, the ancient Mayan civilization declined rapidly and all big cities were abandoned. When the Spanish invaded, the Mayan city-state on Yucatan Peninsula was already a fragmented and decaying scene.
As mentioned above, Mayan culture is one of the most advanced ancient cultures in America, and it has made considerable achievements in both material and cultural aspects, and still has an important influence on Mexico and some countries in Central America. But compared with the advanced civilization of contemporary European continent, it is primitive and outdated. Therefore, during the Spanish invasion in the16th century, the fragile Mayan culture was severely damaged.
Indians believe in animism. They respect nature and are in awe of every grass, tree and stone in nature. Indians have been assimilated by Christianity in Europe to a considerable extent. In today's America, most Indians believe in Christ, but the original Indian belief still exists, and it has become a strange religious belief mixed with Christianity. Kayelet said that religious belief occupies a high position in Indian life, and the most important tribal leader is the religious leader, whose power in internal affairs is higher than that of the tribal leader. In most tribes, tribal leaders are only responsible for external affairs, mainly dealing with federal or local governments. He represents the tribe externally, but his appointment power is in the hands of religious leaders, and his internal affairs are subject to religious leaders.
Indians: Wandering between Modernity and Tradition