ABORIGINES. – Original inhabitants of the place in which they dwell (autochthones). In ethnological usage, those inhabitants of a land whose civilization proves to be the most ancient among those flourishing around them are called aborigines.
They are: in Africa, the Pygmies of the Ituri, and certain groups of the same further to the west, as well as the Pygmoid Batwa (Belgian Congo and Ruanda), and finally the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert; in North America, some Joshua and Salish tribes in the northwest, the Algonquins (Lenape, Winnebago, Sauks, Foxes, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc.), some tribes of central California (Maidu, Pomo, Wintu, etc.), in South America the Gê (Brazil) and then the Fuegians (Tierra del Fuego); in Asia, certain Arctic peoples such as the Samoyeds, certain Koryaks, the Tungus, the Eskimos, as well as the Ainu in Japan, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, the Semang of the Malay Peninsula, and the Negritos of the Philippines; in Australia, certain tribes of the southeastern zone of the continent (Kurnai, Kulin, Kamilaroi, etc.).
All these peoples, therefore, inhabit secluded places, often on the margins of continents, on islands, in dark forests, among mountains difficult of access, in desert lands, far from the great and obligatory trade routes, as though forcibly driven into natural refuges by the impetus of successive migratory waves. Their cultures, in general, differ from more advanced civilizations by the absence of pottery, weaving, and metalworking, and by the fact that they do not practice agriculture or animal husbandry. The men procure food from animals through simple individual hunting; the women gather herbs, roots, and spontaneous fruits. In short, these are cultures that fall under the denomination of Simple Hunters and Gatherers.
They have a marked sense of the family, predominantly monogamous, with free choice on the part of the girl. Bride capture or purchase is unknown. Women enjoy equal rights, or at least a relative independence in domestic matters. The birth rate is high despite their nomadic lifestyle. Infanticide is absent. Few of these tribes are governed by chiefs because of the great preeminence of the family. Respect for the individual is strong, while cannibalism and slavery are unknown. Clear are the concepts of individual and family property. Prominent is the belief in a supreme Being who is creator, legislator, judge, and owner of all that is necessary for existence. He is the object of worship expressed through prayers, ceremonies, and offerings (first fruits of the hunt and gathering). Their myths about Him, His teachings, creation, the fall, the first sin, and the consequent sanction—the death—are exceedingly rich. This is the form of civilization that, through extensive comparisons, reveals itself as the most ancient, and we have confirmation of this from linguistics, which often shows how the speech of many of these peoples constitutes an island among the surrounding languages, and from anthropology, whose scholars are now agreed on the antiquity of these peoples. It is understood, however, that in the type of civilization in question there is not to be seen an absolutely primordial civilization, but only the oldest among those known, i.e., the oldest stratum of civilizations now accessible to ethnology.
- See Plate VII.