Sources

The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and Present

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and Present." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-world-of-the-first-australians-aboriginal-traditional-life-past-and-present.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and Present. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-world-of-the-first-australians-aboriginal-traditional-life-past-and-present

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-world-of-the-first-australians-abori,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and Present},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-world-of-the-first-australians-aboriginal-traditional-life-past-and-present},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Ronald and Catherine Berndt spent decades conducting fieldwork across Aboriginal Australia, and this standard scholarly reference, here in its later revised edition, works directly from that sustained firsthand fieldwork to document social organization, belief and custom across many Aboriginal communities. This record states a real and important limit rather than presenting the book as complete: some Aboriginal religious knowledge is restricted to initiated persons and is not represented in any published source at all, so this book's coverage, however broad, should never be read as the whole of what the tradition holds. Use it for established general facts about Aboriginal traditional culture that this reference documents; it is not evidence that unpublished restricted knowledge does not exist or does not matter.

Facts

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Ronald and Catherine Berndt's standard scholarly reference on Aboriginal Australian traditional life, based on decades of the authors' fieldwork; some Aboriginal religious knowledge is restricted to initiated persons and is not represented in any published source, so this book's coverage should not be read as complete.

Notes

Standard scholarly reference on Aboriginal Australian traditional life, covering social organization, belief and custom across Aboriginal Australia based on decades of the authors' fieldwork. Use for established general facts about Aboriginal traditional culture; some Aboriginal religious knowledge is restricted to initiated persons and is not represented in any published source, so this book's coverage should not be read as complete.

Citation

Author

Ronald M. Berndt and Catherine H. Berndt

Publisher

Aboriginal Studies Press

Publication Year

1999

Source Type

academic monograph

Claims Backed By This Source (137 claims)

This source backs 137 claims across the atlas. As facts: 97 well-attested. As cited relationships: 20 holds. Plus 20 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Articles, 32 claims: 30 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Deities, 23 claims: 17 well-attested, 2 holds, 4 general references.
Constellations, 17 claims: 8 well-attested, 6 holds, 3 general references.
Sacred Objects & Ritual Items, 16 claims: 11 well-attested, 3 holds, 2 general references.
Animals & Totems, 15 claims: 11 well-attested, 2 holds, 2 general references.
Rituals, 11 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
Myths & Sacred Narratives, 8 claims: 4 well-attested, 2 holds, 2 general references.
Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
Cultures, 6 claims: 2 holds, 4 general references.
Languages, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.