Totem Worship And Symbols

There exist a variety of statements about the origin of art, the witchcraft said (religious origins)occupies a very heavy component. The oldest primitive religion of totem worship breed theprimitive art, thus the primitive art became the carrier of the social group expression andreligious feelings, and strengthening the totem worship.Australian Aborigines are the most primitive human races that we can observe in moderntimes They came to the continent as early as forty thousand years ago, and the continent iscalled the classical terrain of totem worship. Aboriginal people believe in god genesis, it isthought that the "Dream Time" is their ancestors’ genesis times. Since ancient times, Primitiveart has been a way of self-expression for Aboriginal people, it helps to connect people to theirland, and to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. The paintings of the AustralianAborigine artists are crowed with symbols of nature, the paintings are semi-abstract in style,symbols and totems in the Aboriginal art provide a unique insight into the profound spiritualand family connection between Australia’s Indigenous people and the country. Recent years,Australian aboriginal art has been more valued under the multicultural policies, and the worldmarket has started paying more attention to artworks from non-European countries. In thisdissertation, I aim to recognize the origin of indigenous Australian art, to find “aesthetic”value of symbols and icons in indigenous Australian art, to find an appreciation of the culturemeaning behind these complex and beautiful works from anthropology, sociology, semioticsaspects.