stone arrangements and mythology

Mankind, 1 1 (1977), pp. 33-8

Stone Arrangements and Mythology KINGSLEY PALMER*

Recordings of stone arrangements are well represented in the literature. As early as 1841 Sir George Grey reported aligned stones in the Glenelg River area (Grey, 1841, 1 : 161). Withnell commented on piles of stones used for renewal ceremonies (With- nell, 1901:5-6) and Clement made similar comments two years later (Clement, 1903: 6-7). A more detailed description of stone arrangements was made by Wood Jones (1925: 123-8) which included some comments from Aborigines. Dow, writing in 1938, described stone arrangements as ‘ceremonial grounds’ (Dow, 1938b: 130). In 1939 Towle published a bibliography of stone arrangements in Australia, and in the following year Mountford was able to review the literature to that date. Since then descrip- tive accounts of stone arrangements have continued to appear in the literature, and these include articles by Serventy and White (1958), Davies (1961), and Campbell and Hossfeld (1966) among others.

Some writers attempted to throw more light on the subject by commenting on the practical use of stone arrangements. Thus Mountford ( 1940: 28 1 ) described arrangements that were built for fun. Davidson (1954:518) described stones used to ‘yard dingo pups’ and in the same article described their use for mortuary rites. One of the most recent discussions about the practical purposes for aligned stones is by MacKnight and Gray (1970). The authors describe arrangements that constitute a very distinct form of representational art. McCarthy (1974: 188) reviewed some of the more important data explaining practical uses of arranged stones. They may be the work of children, or youths, territorial markers or warning stones. They may be connected with mortuary rites, indicate totemic seasonal renewal sites (dalu) or be marks left by the

*Western Australian Museum, Francis St, Perth 6000. Ms. received April 1976, revised December 1976.

ancestors in the Dreaming. The list also includes such things as hunting blinds, fish traps and pits.

Interpretations developed from information gained from the Aborigines themselves are sometimes simplistic. Mountford ( 1927: 169-72) records that Aborigines had told a pastoralist’s father that a stone arrangement was used by them for rain making. Dow (1938a) and Mountford (1939) g‘ ive a minimum of information and make only generalized unsupported statements. Caw- thorn ( 1963), Campbell and Hossfield (1964), and Sofoulis (1973) apply subjec- tive interpretative comments to the arrangements they are describing and there is a marked absence of documented source material.

RadclifFe-Brown ( 1926) included more details of mythological interpretation, an approach also adopted by Campbell and Mountford (1939), McCarthy ( 1953a and b) and Gould ( 1969). The literature as a whole however lacks good ethnographic data and most writers have been preoccupied with mythological explanations to the exclusion of other considerations.

There are clearly many different types of stone arrangement and both Love (1938) and McCarthy (1940 and 1970) attempted to clarify the situation by presenting classi- fications. McCarthy added that the divisions within his classification were not consistent with function. ‘Each type is used for more than one purpose in the ritual associated with magic, religion and mythology, and, Eurther even to denote notable events in daily life’ (McCarthy, 1940 : 188). Love (1938) had drawn a significant distinction between stone arrangements of supernatural origin and those acknowledged to be the work of humans. McCarthy stresses this when noting the contrast between ‘structures believed to have been made by the mythological beings who lived in the ancient Dream- time world, and those made by the living Aborigines. The former group comprises

MANKIND VOL. 11 No. 1

natural sites, totem centres, initiation grounds, fish traps, and places associated with culture heros and magic’ (McCarthy,

Practical uses for stone arrangements present the reader with little problem, though he is of course at liberty to dismiss some accounts as either unsubstantiated by empiri- cal data or simply too far-fetched. The dis- cussion of the mythological interpretations is less straightforward and has centred on the view first put forward by Mountford in 1940, that mythology represents survival of a former culture. ‘Their use and origin seems to have been lost, so the latter has been attributed to a mythical source’ (Mountford, 1940:287). The cultural survival argument is not only unsupported by archaeological fact but it fails to comprehend the basic elements of mythology. More dangerously, it reflects an attitude whereby the Aborigines are discredited as holding an inferior belief system, inherited in reduced form from their superior ancestors.

The following examples from the Pilbara region of Western Australia describe stone arrangements and their associated mythology. They are all of the McCarthy type 8, ‘Com- plex Arrangements’ (McCarthy, 1970 : 82). Data were collected during personal inter- views by the writer whilst undertaking field- work in the area from 1974 to 1976.

Packsaddle is in the Hamersley Ranges just over 100 kilometres west of Mt Newman. A stone arrangement is situated there on gently rising terrain north of a ridge of higher ground, which is covered with spini- fex. There are areas of scree and alluvial, with a few small gum trees. Placed stones are of local material, put often on end in rows and lines. The stones occur up to 50 cm apart, and vary in size from 10 cm to 30 cm square or slightly larger. The extent of the arrangement is over 300 metres square. Parts of the arrangement are complex and there are similarities in designs between one part and another, but no overall pattern can be detected. The location, topography and general appearance of the site correlates with that described by Informant A (see below).

Although little relevant Aboriginal comment could be obtained, men at Jigalong agreed that the site was created in the Dream- time, and a man from Yandearra Station (Informant A : October 1975) was able to

1940: 188-9).

make more detailed comment about the site. He went to the place when he was eight or nine years old, so he must have visited the site in about 1919. He spoke of there being a large number of people living then at the nearby station. According to another informant (Informant B: August 1975) the tribal group that operated in the area was known as the Mundara, a sub-group of the Bandjima people. (See Tindale, 1974: 247.)

Informants A and B agreed that Pack- saddle stone arrangement was called Ningu- rana, which literally means ‘beard’, and it belonged to Mulbu,l and was the place where he ‘came out’. Informant B stated that the spirit had a very long beard, which extended right down to the ground, and he had sometimes to carry it tied round his waist. He was a single man, and was generally considered to be ‘very dangerous’. Malbu is a spirit who may be encountered almost anywhere by the incautious. Informant A (October 1975) told of such a meeting near Mumbillina Bluff on Yandearra Station. He was ‘just like a bloke, got a long tail on him YOU know’. His colour is ‘a red one . . . like a stone like a big rocks you know’. Like other spirit beings Malbl4 was neither singu- lar nor plural. He/they were elusive:

Stop with you along side, and he stop with me, and he knows . . . two or three, might be four or five. He’s mungan, [Dreaming] only you tell him something and he won’t answer you know, but if you were out catching him he’d laugh you know. (Informant A)

The site at Packsaddle was aptly described as being composed of rough diamond shapes and circles, made from stones of djubin or wilgi (ochre). The old people who showed the informant the site said that it was a ‘dangerous’ place and that no one should go there. The visit appears to have been a casual one taking place during normal

1Cf . ‘Malpu-(Kat) A spirit of the dead, similar to Maamu, hairy, long toothed, female cannibal beings’, Ten Raa and Woenne (1974:124, 127). Aborigines from Jigalong talked of women spirit beings, who were also red, who seduced men a t their will-though the experience apparently had no unpleasant side effects, except fatigue. In Nyungamada malbu is known as nyirlu. There is perhaps an indication in the transcription that Informant A thought rnalbu was female. Sex is certainly not established. See also Tonkinson ( 1974 : 70).

[ 34 1

VOL. 11 No. 1 MANKIND

station activities. The informant expressed concern at the possible destruction of the place.

Some distance further west, but still in the Hamersley Ranges, another informant talked of a stone arrangement of smaller propor- tions known as Marwulin. This consisted of two parallel lines of local stones:

Any colour, as long as he finished, put there before the country got dry. (Informant C: April 1975)

The stones ran towards a rock hole in a creek, and were said to belong to the fresh water turtle, bindi.

That’s been walking before, when he was a man. Before he turn into a turtle, them fresh water one, you know, little one. Well, that one been walking. . . . That’s where he left a track. That one for Yainadji [Aboriginal] law again.

Stone arrangements are by no means limited to the highland areas of the Pilbara. In Nyarboli country east of Newman, informants from Jigalong told of a group of sites, one of which was a stone arrangement : bimuru. The place belonged to the Wilurdin (Eaglehawk), and although the stone arrangement was not visited, elongated slabs from the site were collected from a cache in the vicinity along with other secret/sacred material for safe keeping. The informant (Informant D: March 1975) stated that the stones had been put there by the Wilardu in the mungun, and it was the Eaglehawk’s place. The old Nyarboli miibun (doctors) used the place to kill people. The arrangement has since passed into the control of the Gadudjara as the Nyarboli became frag- mented in the post-contact situation. The informants therefore appreciated the place as a centre for great power, and valued it for its totemic affiliations. However, none of them knew exactly where it was located.

The fourth example of mythology and a stone arrangement comes from a coastal area about 130 kilometres southwest of Port Hed- land. A complex arrangement of stones form a ‘V’ shape with a single engraved phallic stone at the point where the two lines come together. A short distance to the east is a third line extending roughly north- south and this crosses the easterly arm of

the ‘V’. The area abounds with lithic flakes, many of which, together with the stones that cover the bare ground, are rendered a dark red colour as a result of silicification. The site is highly regarded by informants, and women and children are forbidden to visit the place. I t is known generally as Gun- dungic, a dyurgurbd place, and was used in the Dreamtime as a circumcision and subincision place. The lithic flakes represent the attempts at making the djimuri or cutting stones, and the phallic stone represents the Dreamtime example to be followed for ever.

Early days, all the Marga people, that time, yes, when this was built . . . this been their private meeting ground . . . they came from different places, say Marga from Mardudyu- nira, Marga from Dalindji people, Kurama people, Indjibumdi, all Ngarluma people, they d l meet together. (Informant F: May 1974)

The ritual given at this place was known as Nyiningungu, and it was described as being a ‘very rough one’. It included cutting the arms and chest, and subincision. When the Murgu’ gave the Nyiningmgin, some groups became frightened.

My mob was sitting there, they took off to those trees, see, they got frightened, with all that blood . . . they took off up the river, that’s their mark where they went away from this place. (Informant F: May 1974)

The informant pointed to the long line of stones extending south from the ‘V’ which indicated the pathway taken by his ‘mob’, the Indjiburndi. They objected to the very rough Nyiningangii rituals, and adopted the Bidara circumcision ritual which is retained to this day. The dark colour of the stones was a result of all the blood being spilt by the excess of the ‘rough’ practices.

Other groups ran away as well, and thus some had no circumcision. These included the coastal Ngarluma, Mardudyunira and the more southern Dalindji people. The

2 Dyurgurba means both the spiritual dreaming, or in these areas may be used in context to mean the dream experienced in natural sleep. Further east the term is restricted, and has sacred conno- tations.‘ In the Roebourne area it is often used to mean circumcision ground’. Cf. Brandenstein (1970:91, 320). 3 See Palmer (1975:lSS) for comment on the

word marga.

r351


local group, who were Ngarlunia, practised the Nyiningungu in post-contact times, although traditionally they did not circumcise. The last Nyiningungu ritual was held at Croydon station about the turn of the cen- tury. While the stone arrangement itself had to be maintained, it was the place where the ritual was given, and had no practical use to aborigine^.^

The final example underlines the celerity with which informants produce a mythological explanation for a site not viewed, not previously known, but undoubtedly recognized as dyugurbiindi (belonging to the Dreamtime) and linked to relevant mythology. A group of three arrangements near the Paterson Ranges, in the Great Sandy Desert, were discussed with Informant E (August 1975) from Jigalong, who examined diagrams and photographs of the site. The stones are located on open scree, adjacent to a rocky scarp. Three arrangements comprise the group which are of linear design with small curved ‘arms’ and loops. The stones are often no bigger than an emu egg. The informant attributed the placed stones to the mythological Minyiburd who travelled through the area in the Dreamtime.

They might have been travelling there, and put their mark there where they pull u p there and wait. Or they going another way, they went that way, wasn’t it? (Informant E)

Direction of travel was determined by the lines of the stones, and care was taken in the interview to orient the diagrams properly

Q Wright (1968:24) and Brandenstein (1970: 89) discuss the site. Both consider that the place was actually used within living memory. A close study of the informant’s transcript shows clearly that it was a Dreaming place, and the recent activities took place at Croydon Station 27 kilometres to the north. Since the Ngarluma did not traditionally practise circumcision the rite must have been introduced in post-contact times by other groups who came to the area. See also, Tindale (1974: 244) ‘Kariara’.

6 See McCarthy (1962:21-7; 1970:78), Tonkin- son ( 1974 :72). The Minyiburu began their travels from Depuch Island, and were considered female, though they lacked a vagina. Their travels were extensive. Aborigines examining grinding grooves in the Paterson Range area attributed them to the Dreamtime activities of the Minyiburu. See Tonkinson, unpublished report for Newmont Pty Ltd on Paterson Range area 3.7.3.3. (1974). With acknowledgement to Newmont Pty Ltd.

since this clearly had relevance to the re- lationship existing between the stone lines and the movement of the ancestors.

And this one all come in here, all . . . and this one all come in here, coming, coming, and come in here, all come in here, all come in here, all come in, all come in and this lot there, and this hill, and all there, all there, all went round there. I think they put a heap there, and all went down again. The same mob . . . Minyiburu. (Informant E)

The informant traced the lines of the stones with his fingers with animation as he spoke these words and followed the lines of the ancestors in their mythological travels. The stones were the marks and the tracks left by the Minyiburu and proved beyond doubt what they did.

Stone arrangements for which a con- vincing practical explanation is available are not contentious provided the data collected are reliable and well documented. Mytho- logical explanations are less conclusive since they tell us only the relevance and meaning of the site to contemporary informants and tell us nothing of who erected the stones in the first place or why. The facility with which Aborigines adopt a mythological explanation has been noted elsewhere (Palmer, 1975 : 155), and is further illustrated above by the example from the Paterson Range area. Attempts have been made to evaluate sites with mythological explanations, and there has been an implication that the site’s importance is somehow less because it is not ritually used by a traditional group. Dow (1938a:36) concludes that this is because they ‘belonged to a culture and a symbolism that was not understood . . . by the later [Aboriginal] migrants’. C. P. Mountford writes, ‘the arrangements represented a survival of a custom that has had much greater significance. Our present culture has many such remnants’ (Mountford, 1940:286).

These assessments of the mythology of stone arrangements imply two things. First, that the site is devalued because it is not currently used for its supposed original ritual purpose. In other words the place was really important only to the people who originally used it. However ownership of particular sites by the local descent group primarily implies spiritual identification with that site and the mythological protagonists associated

VOL. 11 No. I MANKIND

with it (Berndt and Berndt, 1964:42; Maddock, 1974: 32ff.). Ritual enactment may sometimes be the consequence of that mythology. The importance of the site is not determined by physical occupation, but by the mythological links, since the land- owning group was essentially concerned with the religious aspects of the estate, though this does not imply that as a result they did not visit the site. Further, knowledge of the mythology of one site, and its associated songs and rituals, if any, were not confined to those who might actually visit a site. Mythology was not so geographically limited. Berndt comments (1970:53), ‘visits seem to have been made fairly constantly to these sites, even though for perhaps most of the year exigencies . . . prevented a more per- manent association. But the country was immortalized in song and myth which could be sung or told anywhere.’ A site’s mythological importance will be highly relevant to its ‘owners’ and to others who are familiar with that mythology. Visiting a site was a consequence of this importance and not its cause.

Secondly, the statements quoted above suggest that the Aborigines inherited another culture, which was perhaps superior, and so acquired both a body of belief and a material culture. The best they were able to do with these was to reduce them in substance and worth and immerse them in their own mythology. There are of course parallels in European folklore; history tells of one culture replacing another, and mythology results from earlier religion or material culture which the new occupants cannot or do not wish to comprehend. In prehistoric Aus- tralia the specific successive infiltration of new peoples in direct association with a site is scantily supported by archaeology. No geographical distribution of stone arrangements supports such an explanation, while in most cases reliable dates are more or less impossible to achieve.6

The process whereby a stone arrangement acquired a mythological explanation is pre- sumably one of oral transmutation, when events in recent or not so recent history are altered and influenced in the telling by a common desire to define the unaccountable

6 Jones (1965) discusses an excavation of a stone arrangement in Tasmania, but is unable to give any clear idea of antiquity.

in mythical terms. The evidence clearly indi- cates that there are numerous reasons for the creation of stone arrangements, with little consistency in type or overall design. If the process of oral tradition is restored to its correct place in the sequence of events, there is no requirement for the hypothesis that one culture took over another. Instead we can look at a stone arrangement with a mythological explanation and conclude, not unreasonably, that it was originally built for one or more of the reasons documented in the literature, and note archaeological evidence to help in these specifications. Thus a single arrangement could have been built with deep religious or emotional motives, alternatively it could have been the work of children, or an artistic expression. Extended arrangements may have been the result of emulation, perhaps with a religious motiva- tion. Whatever the original reason for a single arrangement, in the absence of a logical contemporary reason, those who presume to know are likely to attribute the stones to a mythological source. This process may have happened comparatively recently or many centuries ago, but the resulting belief has since become a part of oral tradition.

Aetiological beliefs are a natural reaction to the unusual and form a basis for non- scientific explanation. This response is by no means limited to the Australian Aborigines and there is to this day a popular reluctance to accept the simply scientific or merely mundane explanation for the unusual. The Aborigine with no science but a deep sen- sitivity for the Dreaming would have found mythological explanations natural. Further, such knowledge, which was often esoteric, had a commodity value conferring status on the owner.

The mythology of stone arrangements should be recognized as a vital and relevant part of Aboriginal religious belief. By its study we understand that a site in mythology is just as important, if not more so than a ‘living’ site, and that the mythology is a rich, pulsating body of belief, and not just the leftovers from some previous culture. Such understanding may help place this part of Aboriginal tradition in a truer perspective than has previously been the case.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BERNDT, R. M . 1970. The Sacred Site: The


Western Arnhem Land Example. A.A.S. NO. 29, Social Anthropology Series No. 4, A.I.A.S., Canberra.

BERNDT, R. M. and C. H. 1964. The World o f the First Australians. Sydney.

BRANDENSTEIN, C. G. VON. 1970. Narratives f r o m the North-West of Western Australia in the Ngarluma and Jindjiparndi Languages. 3 vols. A.A.S. No. 35, A.I.A.S., Canberra.

CAMPBELL, T. D. and HOSSFELD, P. S. 1964. Aboriginal stone circles. Mankind, 6, 181-3.

. 1966. Australian Aboriginal stone arrangements in north-west South Australia. Trans. Roy. Soc. S.Aust., YO, 171-6.

CAMPBELL, T. D. and MOUNTFORD, C. P. 1939. Aboriginal arrangement of stone in Central Australia. Trans. Roy . Soc. S.Aust., 63, 17-21.

CAWTHORN, P. 1963. An Aboriginal site at Wiluna. W . A . Not. , 8, 151-2.

CLEMENT, E. 1903. Ethnological notes of the Western Australian Aborigines. Internationales Archiv. fur Ethnographie, Vol. XVI.

DAVIDSON, D. S. 1954. Stone arrangements in Western Australia. Mankind, 4, 518-21.

DAVIES, S. J. F. 1961. Some Aboriginal sites in the Murchison district of Western Australia.

Dow, E. B. 1938a. Aboriginal ceremonial cairns W . A u s ~ . Not. , 8, 1-5.

near Broken Hill. Oceania. 9. 30-6. . 393813. Aboriginal ston; designs. Man-

GREY, SIR GEORGE. 1841. Journals of T H * O Ex- kind, 2, 126-33.

peditions to Discovery in North-we; and West Actstrcrlia. 2 vols. London.

JONES, R. 1965. Excavations on a stone arrangement in Tasmania. Man, 65, 78-9.

LOVE, J. R. B. 1938. Illustrations of the stone monuments of the Worora. Rec. S.Ausf. Mus., 6, 137-9.

MCCARTHY, F. D. 1940. Aboriginal stone arrangement in Australia. Arrst. Miis. Mag., 7(6), 184-9.

. 1953a. A circumcision ceremony and stone arrangement on Groote Eylandt. Rec.

-~ . 3953b. The snake woman, Jiningbirna. Rer. Aust. Mus. , 23, 105-9.

. 1962. The rock engravings at Port Hed- land. Pap. Kroeber Anthrop. Soc., 26.

. 1970. Aboriginal Antiquities in Western Australia. In F. D. McCarthy (ed.), Aboriginal Antiquities in Australia. A.A.S. No. 22, A.I.A.S., Canberra.

MOUNTFORD, C. P. 1927. Aboriginal stone structures in South Australia. Trans. R o y . Soc.

~- 1939. Aboriginal arrangement of stones at Moana, South Australia. Trans. Roy. Sor.

~- . 1940. Aboriginal stone structures. Trans.

PALMER, K . 1975. Petroglyphs and associated Aboriginal sites in the north west of Western Australia. Arch. and Phys. Anthrop. in Oceania,

RADCLIFFE-BROWN, A. R. 1926. Arrangements of

ANSI. Mus., 23, 97-103.

S . A I I S ~ . , 51 , 169-72.

S.Aust., 63, 119-20.

ROY. S O ~ . S.Aust., 64, 279-87.

10, 152-60.

stones in Australia. Man, 26, 204-5. SERVENTY, V. N. and WHITE, S. R. 1958. Stone

arrangements at Canna, Western Australia. W . A .

SOFOULIS, J . 1973. Some Aboriginal stone arrangements, Secure Bay region, Kimberley Division, Western Australia. W . A . Nut., 12,

TEN RAA, E. and WOENNE, S. T. 1974. Research Dirtionary of the Western Desert Language 01 Austrcilia (4th 3.4 edn). Dept. of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.

TINDALE, N. B. 1974. Aboriginal Tribes of Aus- fralirn. Canberra.

TONKIN~WN, R. 1974. T h e Jigalong M o b . Menlo

Nut., 6, 85-92.

121-8.

. . Park, California.

TOWLE. C. C. 1939. A biblionraohv of stone arrangements found in Austrdia.- fiankind, 2, 21 6-21,

WITHNELL, J. G. 1901. The Customs and Traditions o f the Aboriginal Natives of North Western A ustralia. Roebourne.

WOOD JONES, F. 1925. The ordered arrangement of stones present in certain parts of Australia. J . Roy. Anth. Inst., 55 , 123-8.

WRIGHT, B. J . 1968. Circumcision Rites in the Pilbara. Unpublished ms.

LIST OF INFORMANTS

A. Aged about 65, and a member of the Balgu tribe. His father was a dogger in the Hamersley Ranges, and he travelled with him over areas including Juna Downs and Packsaddle. He spent some time at Mulga Downs Station and first went to Yandearra in 1911. His expression is not always clear, and it may take a time to establish sometimes simple points.

B. Aged 7.5. His father was Nyamil, with mother Gariyara. They went to Roy Hill Station about 1900 where the informant was born. He thus calls himself Nyarbali, and was well versed in that tradition. His memory, articu- late speech and understanding of what is re- quired make him a most valuable informant.

C. Aged about 66, Bandjima, having lived at Rocklea, Mt Stuart and now Peedamulla Stations. Naturally taciturn he has consider- ab!c store of knowledge which is told to those he knows well.

D. Cadadjara and Budadjara mixed, of the Banaga group, now living at Jigalong. Until recently he was chairman of the Elders, and he continues to hold a position of importance in the community.

E. Aged about 55 , having lived on stations south of Jigalong where he is now resident. He is an extremely friendly, helpful man and a good friend, but is sometimes rather difficult to understand.

F. Aged 67, Indjiburndi. Born on Croydon Station, of the Banaga section. H e travelled widely as a younger man, and returned to work locally. His knowledge in this instance was good, if somewhat confused.

stone arrangements and mythology

Documents