4244 x 2356 px | 35,9 x 19,9 cm | 14,1 x 7,9 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
2011
Altre informazioni:
Australian Aborigines, also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem (from the origin), are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continent — that is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania. Since 1995 the Australian Aboriginal Flag (right), designed in 1971 by the Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas, has been one of the official "Flags of Australia" under section 5 of the Flags Act 1953. The origin of Aboriginal peoples in Australia has been the subject of intense speculation since the nineteenth century. Until recently, no theory of migration has gained wide acceptance, and genetic studies have shown the Aborigines to be isolated from other racial groups. Some scholars have proposed theories of kinship with groups in South Asia, whereas others have proposed a more direct migration from Africa only passing through South Asia. A 2009 genetic study in India found similarities among Indian archaic populations and Aborigines of Australia, indicating a Southern migration route, with expanding populations from Southeast Asia migrating to Indonesia and Australia. In a genetic study in 2011, researchers found evidence from the DNA of Aboriginal hair strands that the Aboriginal population split off from the European and Asian population between 62, 000 and 75, 000 years ago, roughly 24, 000 years before the European and Asian populations became differentiated. The earliest human explorers kept migrating into South Asia and then into Australia, making the Aborigines the oldest continuous population outside Africa, the people who have longest occupied their traditional territory. The results imply that modern Aborigines are the direct descendants of the explorers who arrived 50, 000 years ago. This finding supports earlier archaeological findings of human remains near Lake Mungo that were dated to 45, 000 years ago.
