CMLIT 153

Reading Questions

Lambert, Intro & select tales; Lawlor, "Time and Space in the Dreaming."

Reading Questions:

1. What is the Dreamtime? How does the notion of the Dreamtime fit into Australian Aboriginal cosmology?

2. What is totemism?

3. How are the Dreamtime stories relevant to the everyday lives of the Aborigines?

4. How do the Aborigines conceive of space and time according to Lawlor?

5. Explain "The Plant is the Dream of the Seed" (Lawlor, 38).

6. What lessons are drawn from the three stories transcribed by Parker ("Sturt's Desert Pea," "Murgah, Muggui" and "Bralgah the Dancing Bird")? What do these stories tell us about the Dreamtime? What are your own reactions to these stories?