Aboriginal is usually used as a synonym for original settler.
Aboriginal is someone or something native to the land on which they live . In this sense, it can name both a person (an Aboriginal tribe ) and an animal or a plant .
When the term refers to a person, it is used to name the original inhabitant of a territory , which is why it is contrasted with those who later settled in the region.
The aboriginal, an original settler
The notion of aboriginal is used as a synonym for indigenous or original settler . However, in its most specific sense, an indigenous person is a man who belongs to an ethnic group that preserves traditional non-European culture . Generally, an indigenous person belongs to an organizational tradition prior to the emergence of the modern State .
On the other hand, American aborigines are often mistakenly called Indians ; a confusion that arose when Europeans first arrived in America and believed they had arrived in India .
Different statistics indicate that, currently, there are close to 350 million aboriginal people throughout the planet. While some communities assimilated many customs from the Western world, others remain nomadic or maintain their ancestral ways of life. It is estimated that there are about 5,000 towns with their own linguistic and cultural particularities.
Aboriginal people have been discriminated against and persecuted by Europeans and those of European descent, even long after the conquest of America . Proof of this is that, only in 2006 , South America had its first indigenous president: the Aymara Evo Morales , first president of Bolivia .
The Mapuche people
The Mapuches are an aboriginal people who have occupied the borders between Argentine and Chilean territory since the 17th century . It is a culture with a high capacity for adaptation , which has known how to adapt to different territories, taking advantage of the resources that the soil has offered them, and which has survived dozens of conquest attempts , which still continue.
For a long time they practiced nomadism and in their roots and traditions this practice was fundamental; However, for about a century they have remained in the same territory due to the expropriation that the various governments have carried out on Patagonia . Furthermore, the land they inhabit seems to be shrinking more and more and endangers their subsistence as a people.
It is important to note that, being a very ancient culture, they have their own calendar which is governed by the cycles of the earth and marks the various festivities. The year begins on June 24 because that day dawns after the longest night of the year has passed.
There are numerous Aboriginal peoples around the world.
Aboriginal beliefs
As far as their beliefs are concerned, they are monotheistic. Nguenechen is the name of their god, he is the creator of everything that exists and who dominates the earth and provides life and fertility to all nature . They feel a deep adoration for the land and strictly respect its laws, without engaging in behavior that could affect the balance of the environment. The relationship they establish with the land has a broad meaning, it not only expresses a relationship linked to material subsistence but also implies their way of relating to supernatural forces .
It is an extremely rich and diverse culture that also has its own language , Mapudungun . It is made up of symbols and sounds that are transmitted from generation to generation orally and whose fundamental teaching lies in legends and mythological stories . It is worth mentioning that today there are Mapuche dictionaries, although the words are represented by the letters of the Spanish alphabet, combined with auxiliary signs that allow the sounds of this language to be reproduced, which in some cases differ from those of Spanish. A graphemary called Azümchefe has also been created, in which the 26 graphemes are represented through various signs, where 6 of them correspond to vowels and 20 to consonants.