ABSTRACT
Aboriginal Australia The earliest humans to settle Australia arrived at least 45,000 years ago. At the time of British colonization in 1788 there were two hundred or more Aboriginal language communities within the continent. In areas of intense colonization, the Aboriginal economy was rapidly destroyed andit is only through the reports of explorers that we have records of semi-permanent settlements, the cultivation of edible roots (Dioscorea sp.) and the construction of eel dykes. While such practices have recently been confirmed by archaeological research in the southeast and southwest of the continent, much of Australian anthropology has been conducted in areas remote from European settlement and it is from these areas that the image of the ‘typical’ indigenous cultures of Australia has been derived.
