ABSTRACT
The anthropological study of creative thought in traditional Aboriginal society is problematic. If ‘traditional Aboriginal society’ means indigenous society in Australia prior to the colonial period, then the subject is unknowable to anthropology. It is always possible to reject the validity of evidence on creativity from contemporary Aboriginal society on the grounds that society has been radically transformed by the unprecedented impact of colonialism. Swain has recently used a similar argument to reject evidence that runs counter to his reconstruction of Aboriginal religious philosophy prior to colonisation (Swain 1993). There are two ways of approaching the problem. One is to study creativity in contemporary communities, in the way that demonstrably indigenous themes are realised, and to argue that creative responses to colonisation have developed by extension from traditional practice. The other approach is to look for archaeological evidence of change in the past expressions of culture, and to draw inferences about the processes that made such creativity possible.
