Aboriginal man and environment in Australia,

Abstract

Man came to Australia well before the end of the Pleistocene epoch - the so-called Ice Age. To understand his history, then, both early and later, calls for an understanding of climate and environment, and the changes that have taken place in them. Early man in Australia was a stone-using huntergatherer, and the traditional Aboriginal economy and society have persisted into modern times, so a wealth of ethnographic information is available to help in understanding the way he reacted and so influenced the diversity of environments found in the Australian continent. Over the last ten years Australian archaeology has developed from a very new branch of an old-established discipline to one that has made and is making very significant contributions to the study of universal man, not just in Australia. This book is the outcome of a series of seminars by scholars in many fields who have brought to bear the skills of many disciplines in interpreting a vast array of challenging new information. It will appeal not only to scholars but to all who have an interest in the history of the Australian environment and the story of first human settlement.