[Note: This post originally appeared as a 6-part series on my Facebook page.
It has been slightly edited for my blog.
This is not a work of original research.
More like notes from the book referenced below....]
Part 1
I am slowly working my way through this book on the history of world religions.
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There is an interesting case study about the Dieri people of Southeast Australia.
The descriptions of Dieri culture and religion in this book are taken from the writings of A.W. Howitt, an Australian anthropologist, naturalist, and explorer, who studied the Dieri in the 1860s.
The book notes that there has been much erosion of the traditional Dieri culture since the 1860s.
The Dieri live in an area that is very dry, and usually very hot, and with only scattered trees.
In the hot weather the people wear only "hip girdles."
In the rare times when the weather turns uncomfortably cold they wear kangaroo, wallaby, or opossum skins.
There are scattered tribes of Dieri, each with its own territory and its own dialect.
These people did not grow food or domesticate any animals.
They were food gatherers and hunters.
Dieri hunters used spears with separate spear-heads made from hardwood or flaked stone.
The spearheads could be barbed and the spears were hurled with throwing sticks.
The Dieri used knives and axes made of chipped stone and they invented two different types of boomerangs, one of which could return to the thrower if used properly.
The different Dieri tribes interacted with each other from time to time.
Sometimes they work cooperatively together, but sometimes there are hostile interactions as well.
Like almost all groups in human history, except for some royal families in Egypt and modern Europe, the Dieri noticed that marriages between close relatives often led to unhealthy children.
To deal with this they divided themselves into two classes: the Matteri and the Kararu.
The Matteri were then further divided into totem groups such as the caterpillars, cormorants, emus, eagles, hawks, and wild dogs.
The Kararu were divided into totem groups such as the carpet snakes, crows, rats, frogs, bats, shrew mice, red ochre, and even rain.
No Dieri could marry a person from their own totem group and, in fact, it appears they could not even marry a person from their own class.
A Matteri person had to marry a Kararu person and vice versa.
You got your totem membership from your mother so, if your mother was an eagle, you would be an eagle too.
The oldest man in each totem was the headman.
The group of all headmen took the lead in important matters like initiation ceremonies.
Part 2
The Dieri believed in supernatural beings called the "kutchi."
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They also believed that before the Dieri inhabited the land there was a superhuman race living there called the "mura-muras."
To communicate with the kutchi, or the spirits of the mura-muras, the Dieri would consult with a kind of medicine man called a "kunki."
A kunki could also interpret dreams, counteract evil spells, or drive out evil spirits.
In extreme cases a kunki could even kill people by projecting objects such as quartz crystals or bones right into their bodies.
A kunki could also kill people by secretly stealing their body fat.
The body fat could then be used to perform other magical rituals.
The Dieri did not believe that death was a natural event.
Death was always caused by someone.
As we saw above, death could be caused by a kunki.
Death could also be caused by one of the supernatural beings, the kutchi.
Of course, in addition to death, sickness could also be caused by the kutchi, or by some spell.
If a sickness was caused by the kutchi then a kunki could try to communicate with the kutchi and drive out the illness.
Sickness could also be caused by two enemies of the sick person using a ritual called "pointing of the bone."
In this ritual the enemies would point a human shinbone at the victim and recite a magical spell to make the victim sick.
When a person was sick, or when a person died, the relatives of the deceased could consult with a kunki to find out who caused the sickness or death.
Once the guilty party, or parties, were identified, the tribal council would appoint a "pinya" or revenge party to track down the perpetrators and either kill them or, at least, give them a severe beating.
Part 3
The Dieri live in a very dry place where there are frequent droughts.
They believe that supernatural beings called Mura-Mura live in the sky and put rain into the clouds.
If, for some reason, the Mura-Mura fail to do this the medicine men of the tribe conduct the ceremony intended to make it rain.
When this ceremony is needed the tribe digs a pit two feet deep, twelve feet long, and eight to ten feet wide.
Over the pit they build a hut out of sticks and branches.
The old men of the tribe sit in this hut while a medicine man cuts them with a piece of flint.
The men who are cut then drip or spatter their blood on the other men in the hut.
These drops of blood are supposed to symbolize rain.
A couple of the medicine men, who are also bleeding by this time, throw down into the air and this is supposed to symbolize clouds.
While all this is going on people are begging the Mura-Mura to end the drought and send the rain.
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At the end of the ceremony the men keep head-butting the hut until it is broken open and collapses.
This is supposed to release the rain.
If the rain still doesn't come after this ceremony, it might be assumed that the Mura-Mura are angry with the tribe for some reason.
Alternatively, and perhaps more ominously, it might be concluded that some other tribe has found a way to block the success of the ritual.
Part 4
The Dieri believed that, in the evening, the sun sank into a hole in the earth in the west.
During the night the sun traveled underground to get back to its rising point in the east.
The Dieri believed the sky was another country with trees and rivers similar to those on earth.
They called the Milky Way "the river of the sky."
The sky was thought of as a good place inhabited by supernatural beings called mura-muras and by the souls of the dead.
Sometimes the dead would return to the earth and visit people in their dreams.
When a person dreamed of someone who had died a witch doctor would decide if this was just a normal dream, of no particular significance, or if it was a real visit from a spirit.
If it was a real visit the witch doctor would instruct the person who had the dream to go to the grave of the dead person and light a fire and leave some food.
This was a kind of appeasement to prevent the spirit from causing any harm to the living.
The Dieri had an interesting ritual for increasing the population of carpet snakes and lizards which were part of their diet.
They believed that a mura-mura named Minkani was buried in the sandhills where these reptiles lived.
Women would wait in the camp while the men whose totems were the carpet snakes and lizards would go to the sandhill and dig down until they got to damp earth.
They would dig a little more until they found something they identified as the "excrement" of Minkani.
Then they dug more carefully until they uncovered something they identified as Minkani's "elbow."
Then two men would stand in the hole and cut themselves to drip blood on Minkani.
A special song was sung.
The men then began walking back to camp in a kind of frenzy, striking each other with their weapons.
The women would rush out to meet the men and hold shields over their husbands to protect them and put a stop to the fighting.
With the ceremony complete the Dieri hoped there would be more carpet snakes and lizards for them to eat.
The information in this book is based on reports from a person who visited the Dieri in the 1860s before they were much influenced by European culture.
The book says the Dieri live much differently now than they did when these observations were made.
Of course, we all live much differently now than people did 160 years ago….
Things change.
I hope they change for the better.
Part 5
This section is about the death rituals of the Dieri people of Australia.
Some of the details did not seem entirely clear to me from the book I am reading but I am trying here to summarize what I read as accurately as possible.
Also, at least one of these rituals will likely seem "gross" to many modern westerners.
So, fair warning....
Read on at your own risk.
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When a Dieri aborigine was dying the relatives would divide up into two groups.
The first group included the father, if he was still alive, and the father's brothers with their children.
The second group included the mother, if she was still alive, and the mother's sisters and brothers, as well as the dying person's sisters and brothers.
The mother's group would stay at a distance from the dying person.
This group was very careful not to look into the face of the dying person because his or her longing might draw them in and then they would die also.
The father's group would stay near the dying person and even throw themselves onto the body as the person expired.
Once the person had passed away the father's group would go into mourning and paint themselves with white gypsum.
The men from the mother's group would dig the grave and paint themselves with red ochre.
As two men carried the body to the grave they would ask the deceased who had killed him or her.
Then they would drop the body on the ground and study the way it landed to see if there were any clues about who had caused the death.
(The Dieri did not believe death was natural. They believed death was always the result of some malicious purpose.)
When the body was placed in the grave a maternal grandfather or cousin would cut pieces of fat from the body.
Certain relatives would eat this fat while others would not.
Mothers would eat the fat of their children while fathers would not.
Children would eat the fat of their mother but not of their father.
And so on, according to a complex set of rules about who eats who.
When the grave was filled in, a stack of wood was placed on top of it.
Some of the Dieri were very afraid that the dead would rise up and walk around.
To prevent this they might tie the toes and thumbs of the corpse together.
If the deceased person was an influential member of the tribe, food would be left at the grave for many days.
If the weather was cold a fire would be kept burning near the grave to keep the spirit warm and comfortable.
The tribe might also sweep the ground around the grave and then go back periodically to check for footprints.
If they found footprints they would assume the dead person was not happy with his or her resting place and they would move the body to a new grave.
Once the deceased was resting comfortably the tribe would move to a new camp and never speak of the dead person again to avoid causing any offense.
Part 6
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The first studies of the Dieri by Europeans, back in the 1800s, did not get much information about their beliefs in a supreme God, or about how the world began.
Later anthropologists believe the Dieri may not have felt like sharing their views on such questions, but that they probably had beliefs similar to those of other indigenous people in Australia.
Generally, the aborigines believed that everything began in a period of formlessness and unconsciousness, a period of chaos.
From this chaos Dawn Beings appeared spontaneously without being created.
This happened in a period called Dreamtime.
The chief Dawn Being was the High God or The Old Man of the Sky.
This being is sometimes referred to as “Our Father.”
I can’t tell from this book if the High God was thought of as eternally existing or if he was thought to have arisen spontaneously during Dreamtime like the other Dawn Beings.
The Dawn Beings shaped the earth and all the living creatures on it from the pre-existing chaos. After the world was created the High God gave newly created people the customs and rituals they were expected to follow.
Then he ascended to the Sky Country while many, or all, of the other Dawn Beings, stayed on the earth to establish totemic centers, presumably one totemic center for each group of human beings.
When young men were initiated, they were taught the secret names of the High God that women and children were not allowed to know.
Some Australian tribes believe the High God is remote and takes little interest in human beings.
Some tribes believe the High God watches over human beings very closely.
So, that’s all I have for the Dieri people of Australia.
I will put my six posts together, do a little light editing, and put the end result on my blog which I have been sadly neglecting!
This is really just reading notes strung together into sentences and paragraphs, but I hope it is interesting to some people. 😊
For my next culture / religion project I might write about the Benda or Venda people of South Africa.
We will see!
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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
