Australian Aboriginal Link With Lemuria?

[songhrati]

In his book "Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines", David Unaipon (an Aboriginal man of the Ngarrindjeri nation) wrote that Aboriginal traditions state that Aboriginals were forced to migrate to Australia from Lemuria to avoid harrassment from the Praid arna Prodda, a plague of huge and deadly ants (Unaipon adds that this could mean a competing tribe of warriors rather than an actual plague of huge ants).

I recall the FT article on Lemuria and how Tamils believe they come from Lemuria but this is the first I have heard of an Aboriginal connection to there.

And I wonder if the Tamils were the Praid arna Prodda?

Does anyone else have any information on this?

Z

 

[Zilch5]

Since Lemuria doesn't really exist and most likely never existed, I wouldn't read too much into it.

Though there can be no doubt that some of their Dreamtime stories are based on fact, such as the story below:

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3225 ... ite-crater

 

[Xanatic_]

Yes Lemuria was just a hypothetical continent, proposed during rather recent times. I don´t see why he would specifically mention that place. Is Atlantis just so last year?

 

[songhrati]

Sorry, I didn't make it clear Unaipon was writing in the 1920s, when Lemuria was thought to be more than merely hypothetical. I thought the interesting point was that it was a widespread belief among Australian Aboriginal tribes (Unaipon was Ngarrindjeri, from the southern part of Australia) that they had arrived in Australia from another land, which in the 1920s Unaipon located as Lemuria but is obviously esewhere, chased by giant ants.

Unaipon also makes note of a number of curious links between Aboriginal and Greek mythology but that's another story.

Z

 

[Zilch5]

I've never read any of Unaipon's work I must admit...

But he probably made a leap of faith there. It is now well established that the Aborignies came from the North via Indonesia so he's not wrong in that respect. Earlier Anthropologists much underestimated early human's ability and willingness to travel large distances by canoe and thus always looked for a land bridge to Australia.

Now we know that they were able to come here via the ocean and that there were several migrations from various groups to Australia. I'd say this is the story of one of those migrations.

 

[Vardoger]

Perhaps they originate from The Mu Mu Land instead and are both Justified and Ancient?

 

[Zoltar]

Perhaps they originate from The Mu Mu Land instead and are both Justified and Ancient?

"Mine's a 99!"


Zoltar

 

[OldTimeRadio]

In his book "Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines", David Unaipon (an Aboriginal man of the Ngarrindjeri nation) wrote that Aboriginal traditions state that Aboriginals were forced to migrate to Australia from Lemuria to avoid harrassment from the Praid arna Prodda, a plague of huge and deadly ants (Unaipon adds that this could mean a competing tribe of warriors rather than an actual plague of huge ants).

Those "traditions" can't be any older than 150 years or so, since the very name "Lemuria" wasn't invented until that time.

 

[Zilch5]

I think the "tradition" Unaipon referred to are much older - he just mixed and matched with something that was fashionable at the time.

If he were alive today, I think he'd look closer at the available evidence.

Remember - in the 1920s, Aborigines weren't even considered to be fully human by many people, even scientists. I think his intention was to link their tradition to something "white" people would know and respect.

A bit of an assumption on my part, I know.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Actually, my formal education on this specific issue, which I now understand to be erroneous, insisted that the Aborigines are the very darkest of all the WHITE races!

 

[James_H]

Kumari Kandam, an adaptation of the Lemuria theory by Tamil nationalists in India.

In the 19th century, a section of the European and American scholars speculated the existence of a submerged continent called Lemuria, to explain geological and other similarities between Africa, Australia, India and Madagascar. A section of Tamil revivalists adapted this theory, connecting it to the Pandyan legends of lands lost to the ocean, as described in ancient Tamil and Sanskrit literature. According to these writers, an ancient Tamil civilization existed on Lemuria, before it was lost to the sea in a catastrophe. In the 20th century, the Tamil writers started using the name "Kumari Kandam" to describe this submerged continent. Although the Lemuria theory was later rendered obsolete by the continental drift (plate tectonics) theory, the concept remained popular among the Tamil revivalists of the 20th century. According to them, Kumari Kandam was the place where the first two Tamil literary academies (sangams) were organized during the Pandyan reign. They claimed Kumari Kandam as the cradle of civilization to prove the antiquity of Tamil language and culture.