• Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    In the notes, Howitt describes in the late 1880s the rituals of Gunaikurnai medicine men and women called “mulla-mullung”.

    One ritual involved tying something that belonged to a sick person to the end of a throwing stick smeared in human or kangaroo fat. The stick was thrust into the ground before a small fire was lit underneath.

    “The mulla-mullung would then chant the name of the sick person, and once the stick fell, the charm was complete,” a Monash University statement said.

    The sticks used in the ritual were made of casuarina wood, Howitt noted.

    Jean-Jacques Delannoy, a French geomorphologist and study co-author, told AFP that “there is no other known gesture whose symbolism has been preserved for such a long time”.

    “Australia kept the memory of its first peoples alive thanks to a powerful oral tradition that enabled it to be passed on,” Delannoy said.

  • Elise@beehaw.org
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    4 months ago

    Quickread ‘password passed down over 12000 years.’ It was confusing yet interesting.