What Do Aborigines Eat?

An aborigine is the term used to describe indigenous people. It is an ethnic group of individuals that live in a geographic location, and they were the earliest known individuals to live in this geographic location. Thus, there have been a number of different aborigine groups throughout history, and there are still a handful of aborigine groups in the world. Their diet, hunting and culture was unique between the various aboriginal tribes.

Tasmanian Aborigines

Australia had a couple of different indigenous people on the island. One of the groups was called the Tasmanian Aborigines. These were the indigenous people of Tasmania, Australia.

Their diet depended upon the season. Generally, the different tribes would hunt such food as possums, kangaroos, and wallabies. Depending on the season, the tribes would also be able to eat some of the berries and vegetation in Australia.

Victorian Aborigines

The Victorian Aborigines were one of the other aborigines of Australia. The diets of the Victorian Aborigines depended upon the particular tribe that you were studying. Primarily, the diets were composed of the food in their immediate environment—thus, each of the tribes would eat the vegetation, berries, and mammals of their area. A number of the tribes would eat the scaled fish found in the Australian habitat as well.

Iroquois

The Iroquois were an indigenous and aborigine people from North America. The significant crops that these aborigines ate included the following: corn, beans, and squash. They also ate berries and nuts in the summer, and during the spring, they would tap maple syrup from the trees. They were great fishermen, and ate salmon, trout, bass, perch and whitefish.

Apaches

The Apache tribe was the indigenous tribe of the southwest of North America. Their diet consisted mainly of plants, and some meat. They would hunt the wild animals of their immediate areas, gather wild plants, and grow domestic plants.

Culture of the Aborigines

Tasmanian Aborigines

The different tribes of the Tasmanian Aborigines were loosely connected by language and culture. The social organization of this group was broken into three groups:

• The domestic unit - This was the basic family unit.
• The social unit - This unit referred to a group of families, usually about fifty or sixty individuals composed each social unit.
• Tribes or territories - Social units were loosely connected into tribes.

Before European colonization of Australia, it is estimated that there were between 2000 and 8000 Tasmanian Aborigines in Australia. They were a nomadic group of individuals, and the tribes would move based on seasonal changes.

Victorian Aborigines

The Victorian Aborigines were defined by their religious systems. The Victorian Aborigines separated their religious systems into five distinctions:

• Kurnia
• Kulin
• Maara
• Wergai
• Barkunjee

These distinctions were made based on initiation rites, class systems, descent systems, and totemism.

According to historians, there were thirty-six aboriginal languages spoken by the different groups of the Victorian Aborigines. A number of these languages also had a number of dialects. Six of the languages were located in the area around New South Wales and the south of Australia.

Iroquois

The Iroquois were known for their groundbreaking formation of the Iroquois League. It was the most successful attempt at uniting some of the different indigenous tribes of North America.

The purpose of the tribe was to assist each other against attack from a different tribe outside the League, or an outside enemy.

The Iroquois believed in a Great Spirit and Creator, from which other spirits were born.

The major religious festivals of the tribe coincided with the major times of harvest.

Apaches

The tribe spoke seven different languages, and the smaller groups were loosely connected politically.

They were organized by family clusters, and lived in large collections of extended family. For example, cousins, aunts, second cousins and mother-in-laws would all live together.

Now you know a little more about what the various aboriginal tribes ate and their cultures. These basic tribes, and other aboriginal tribes like them, were the beginning of the culture of these geographic areas throughout the world.