Use Of Spear Throwers example essay topic

Due to their nomadic lifestyle the Aboriginal tool kit is small and multi purpose. The Aboriginal artefacts used in the display will be a spear thrower and boomerangs. Concepts of 'The Other' relating to Australian Aborigines concern the encounter with Europeans during colonisation and the subsequent problems of land rights and human rights that still exist today. Due to their nomadic lifestyle Aborigines do not fence off land and their ancestral territory is important to them. This was used against the Aborigines during English colonisation as they interpreted the lack of fenced off land as lack of ownership and manipulated this to their advantage by claiming the land for themselves. Also Aboriginal use of stone tool technology at the time of colonisation led to the belief that they were the a primitive society that would ultimately evolve into a civilized society in the same way as people in pre-historic and historic England had along a pre-designated line of evolution from stone to bronze age, to iron age up to civilized industrial society.

This evolutionary idea of the progress of societies has now been rebuked and there appears to be no predetermined pathway that every society treads. This view is also extremely Eurocentric as it places the societies of Europe at the top of the evolutionary ladder as if every other societies goal was to become like them. Spear Thrower The following description of the use and method of manufacture of a spear thrower comes from the Pitjantijatjara people of Australia's Western Desert (Brokensha, 1978: 40). Among the Pitjantijatjara spear throwers are mainly made for sale although older men often own one along with three or four spears.

They are made from mulga wood (Acacia ane ura) and are like many Aboriginal tools used for a variety of functions such as a woodworking adze, receptacle (mainly for blood and ochre used in ceremonies), and as a fire saw (Brokensha, 1978: 39). They are made by cutting out a suitable piece of wood, which they now do with a steel-bladed tomahawk cutting at the top and the bottom and then wedging out the timber, in the past this was done with stone tools. The use of steel blades for such tasks reduces the amount of time they take and increases the range of suitable mulga trees as before they needed to be carefully selected for ease of cutting (Brokensha, 1978: 40). The use of steel rather than stone blades is one of the few ways that this practice has changed from the traditional method and undoubtedly is a result of European contact with Aborigines. This demonstrates how evolutionary theories can be disputed, as these Aborigines have jumped from stone to steel use showing that many things influence the alteration of a society they do not follow a predictable linear pattern. After the wood has been cut from the tree it is roughly shaped with the tomahawk into a leaf-type shape (as seen in the diagram) further shaping is done using a version of the traditional adzing tool, a chisel embedded into a piece of pipe.

This is capable of making the blade very smooth and thin which is needed for flexibility that adds a whipping action to the launching of the spear the overall shape of the spear thrower gives the fastest possible spear launching velocity for accuracy and distance (Brokensha, 1978: 39). The spear peg at the sharp end of the spear thrower is attached by kangaroo sinew which is prepared by chewing in the mouth and then the two are lashed together. The handle of the spear thrower is covered with spinifex gum which has an adzing flake embedded into it increasing grip and allowing it to be used as a adzing tool (Brokensha, 1978: 40). Manufacture of spear throwers is said to be an enjoyable experience and a socially cohesive occasion even though the use of spear throwers is declining and they increasingly take on ceremonial importance.

There is no European pressure to alter the traditional methods of making spear throwers due to a lack of a similar item in the European weapon group so when craftsmen get together to make them they are asserting their own identity and manufacturing from their own mental template (Brokensha, 1078: 40). Boomerang There are three main types of Boomerang the plain boomerang, fluted boomerang and incised boomerang (see drawings). The non-returning types of boomerang seen in the display are made of mulga wood and can be found in several areas of Australia's Western Desert (Brokensha, 1978: 57). Painted decoration on boomerangs is often made from different types of ochre use to make geometric shapes onto the wood. Among the Pitjantijatjara early writers noted the absence of boomerangs, however today references to boomerangs in myths about the kangaroo ancestor during Dreamtime indicate they are present among this people, even if that was not always the case. "Two of the large rock holes are the impressions made by the two mythical kangaroos (malu kutjara) when they rested there before going on to their final resting place at Puka Puka a few km away where the two men showed me the two large semi-buried stones which are the malu kutjara.

On the flat rock shelf beside a rock hole at Iltjata the faint engravings of four boomerangs can be seen, two left handed, two right handed and also a shield. The malu kutjara drew these on the rocks so that men could see them and so they would learn how to make boomerangs". (Brokensha, 1978: 59).