Not when, but 'everywhen': Do aboriginal peoples experience time nonlinearly?
This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at Aeon Conversations This awareness of time as cyclical is evident in a number of other cultures and mythologies too. A n excessive preoccupation, in modern societies, with this “manufactured quantity” - along with an acute segmentation of time - can make us too obsessed with the moment. We begin to think in terms of drops and bucketsful of water rather than seeing the river itself. A cardinal tenet of the mythology of the Australian aboriginals is “The Dreaming” also referred to as the Eternal Dream Time. This dreamtime is the sacred abode of the ancestors who taught humans the skills needed for life. Although the dreamtime has echoes of a past heroic age, it cannot be fixed in time. As anthropologist W.E.H. Skinner pointed out, “It was, and is, everywhen.” This mythology reflects an endless succession of events symbolised by the cycle of the seasons. This awareness of time as cyclical is evident in a number of other cu