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Australian Aboriginal enumeration refers to the way some Australian Aborigines traditionally counted. Aboriginal Flag Australian Aborigines is a name used to collectively describe most of the indigenous peoples of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ...
Counting is the mathematical action of adding (or subtracting) one, usually to find out how many objects there are or to set aside a desired number of objects (starting with one for the first object and proceeding with a one-to-one correspondence); however, counting is also used (primarily by...
A common misconception among non-Aborigines is that Aborigines did not have a way to count beyond two or three. However, Alfred Howitt, who studied the peoples of southeastern Australia, disproved this in the late nineteenth century (despite the myth's continuance today). Alfred William Howitt (1830 - 1908) was an Australian anthropologist and naturalist. ...
This counting system was used to send messages on message sticks to neighbouring clans to alert them of, or invite them to, corroborees, set-fights, and ball games. Numbers could clarify the day the meeting was to be held (in a number of "moons") and where (the number of camps' distance away). The messenger would have a message "in his mouth" to go along with the message stick. The systems below are those of the Wurundjeri (Howitt called them after their language, Woiwurung) and the Wotjoballuk. Howitt wrote that it was common among nearly all peoples he encountered in the southeast: "Its occurrence in these tribes suggests that it must have been general over a considerable part of Victoria". As can be seen in the following tables, names for numbers were based on body parts, whose names themselves were metaphorical and often quite poetic: A message stick is a form of communication traditionally used by Indigenous Australians. ...
A Corroboree is a ceremonial meeting of Australian Aborigines. ...
Marn Grook (also spelt marngrook) is an Australian Aboriginal ball game, which is claimed to have had an influence on the modern game of Australian rules football, most notably in the spectacular jumping and high marking exhibited by the players of both games. ...
The Wurundjeri are Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who occupied what is now Melbourne, Australia prior to European settlement of the area. ...
Woiwurrung (sometimes spelt Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung) is an Indigenous Australian language spoken by some of the Kulin Nation clans of Victoria, from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and Gisborne in the west. ...
Wurundjeri counting system -
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| Aboriginal name | literal translation | translation | number | | Būbūpi-mŭringya | child of the hand | little finger | 1 | | Būláto-rável | a little larger | the ring finger | 2 | | Būláto | larger | the middle finger | 3 | | Urnŭng-mélŭk | from Urnŭng = direction
and Mélŭk = a grub found in the holes
of some Eucalyptus | index finger | 4 | | Babŭngyi-mŭringya | mother of the hand | the thumb | 5 | | Krauel | | the wrist | 6 | | Ngŭrŭmbul | a fork | the divergence of radial
tendons | 7 | | Jerauabil | | the swelling of the radial
muscles | 8 | | Thánbŭr | a round place | the inside of the elbow joint | 9 | | Berbert | the ringtail possum, also the name of the armlet
made of the pelt of that animal, hence used to
designate that part of the arm where the armlet is
worn. | biceps | 10 | | Wūling | | the shoulder joint | 11 | | Krakerap | the bag place, or the place whence the bag
hangs by its band | the collar bone | 12 | | Gūrnbert | reed necklace, or the place where the necklace
made of pieces of reed is worn | the neck | 13 | | Kŭrnagor | the point or end of a hill, or of a spur or ridge | earlobe | 14 | | Ngárabŭl | a range or the ridge of a hill | the side suture of the skull | 15 | | Bŭndale | the cutting place, ie, the place where a mourner
cuts themselves with some sharp instrument,
from bundaya=to cut | top of the head | 16 | Howitt writes "from this place the count follows down the equivalent places on the other side, thus giving a considerable scope for enumeration." This article is about the plant genus. ...
Binomial name Pseudocheirus peregrinus (Boddaert, 1785) The Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus, Greek for false hand and Latin for pilgrim or alien) is an Australian marsupial. ...
Wotjoballuk counting system -
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| Aboriginal name | literal translation | translation | number | | Giti mŭnya | little hand | little finger | 1 | | Gaiŭp mŭnya | from gaiŭp = one, mŭnya = hand | the ring finger | 2 | | Marŭng mŭnya | from marung = the desert pine (Callitris verrucosa).
(ie, the middle finger being longer than the others,
as the desert pine is taller than other trees
in Wotjo country.) | the middle finger | 3 | | Yolop-yolop mŭnya | from yolop = to point or aim
| index finger | 4 | | Bap mŭnya | from Bap = mother | the thumb | 5 | | Dart gŭr | from dart = a hollow, and gur = the forearm | the inside of the elbow joint | 6 | | Boibŭn | a small swelling
(ie, the swelling of the flexor
muscles of the forearm) | the forearm | 7 | | Bun-darti | a hollow, referring to the hollow of the inside of the
elbow joint | inside of elbow | 8 | | Gengen dartchŭk | from gengen = to tie, and dartchuk = the upper arm.
This name is given also to the armlet of oppossum
pelt which is worn around the upper arm. | the biceps | 9 | | Borporŭng | | the point of the shoulder | 10 | | Jarak-gourn | from jarak = reed, and gourn = neck,
(ie is, the place where the reed necklace is worn. | throat | 11 | | Nerŭp wrembŭl | from nerŭp = the butt or base of anything,
and wrembŭl= ear | earlobe | 12 | | Wŭrt wrembŭl'' | from wŭrt = above and also behind,
and wrembŭl = ear | that part of the just above
and behind the ear | 13 | | Doke doke | from doka = to move | | 14 | | Det det | hard | crown of the head | 15 | Note that both numbers 6 and 8 here appear to be represented by the elbow. Howitt has perhaps misinterpreted the wrist in the translation of 6, since 7 is the forearm. Superfamilies and Families Phalangeroidea Burramyidae Phalangeridae Petauroidea Pseudocheiridae Petauridae Tarsipedidae Acrobatidae A possum is any of about 63 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea and Sulawesi. ...
See also
The Wurundjeri are Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who occupied what is now Melbourne, Australia prior to European settlement of the area. ...
Alfred William Howitt (1830 - 1908) was an Australian anthropologist and naturalist. ...
A message stick is a form of communication traditionally used by Indigenous Australians. ...
References "Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers", AW Howitt, FGS, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, pp 317-8, London, 1889, reprinted by Ngarak Press, 1998, ISBN 1-875254-25-0 |
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