Reading Bruce Chatwin's Songlines where he describes how the songlines work amongst the aborigines of Australia, creating a spiritual network of Australia based on individual totems and their narratives. not only do we, therefore, have religion, but also psychology, geography and its symbolism (I recently read a Muslim writer who claimed the latter for Islam) but a sense of knowledge connected to both individuals and tribes.
Does this reach back in time thereby representing a means of transmitting knowledge over a long distance but also preserving it?
Yes, via bards and minstrels, for example, Zulu oral traditions, praise poems, honoring ancestors, Iliad and Odyssey etc.
Stephen, its an elemental part. We construct reality through narrative. But the use of singing gave and developed the knowledge of Australians indigenous people giving meaning to the landscape.
I love this. There is still much we have to learn about the importance of music and singing in terms of physiology, memory muscle, learning and spiritual well being. This is very interesting regarding dementia. https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/organisations/dementia-research-groups & Dementia Well being Service | Use our service (bristoldementiawellbeing.org)
I love it too. It seems that, music and song has provided 'absolute' communication throughout time, and yes, served as a spiritual network within traditions.
Although sadly, today's preferred form of communication is the antithesis.
Indigenous Australians connected the song to the landscape and totem. Chadwick points out that the original Greek legends, although many came from the Middle East, are based on totems and could have begun in the same way. Early Greek poetry was connected to song, with the Greek bard a singer.
For many early/indigenous traditions, landscape is understood as the 'primordial text' that reveals the fundamental principles underlying their existence. Song conveys that meaning, and totems also through symbolism.
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