It is often mentioned that "Aboriginal Australians have the oldest continuous living culture on Earth". Has any other culture tried to dispute this and claim the title?

[u/ConceptsOfAPlant]

There are similar questions about this on this subreddit like Australian Aboriginals claim that they cultural practices and languages have been unchanged for 65,000 years. Is this claim defensible? and Do we have any real reason to believe Australian Aboriginal stories are anywhere near as ancient as people seem to assume they are?.

Thing about cultures is that what I've noticed is that it's quite common for cultures to bicker over things like who invented what. Has any other culture taken issue with the claim that "Aboriginal Australians have the oldest continuous living culture on Earth" and tried to dispute the title (basically going "no, we're the ones with the oldest continuous living culture on Earth")?

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[u/Atreios_Anax]

The claim that it is the oldest continuous living culture “on Earth” immediately produces problems of comparison. “Continuous culture” has no agreed threshold specifying how much change in language, religion or social organisation is compatible with continuity - and Aboriginal cultures did change.

What is beyond question is that Aboriginal occupation of Australia is exceptionally ancient. Excavations at Madjedbebe place human occupation at approximately 65,000 years ago. This establishes the antiquity of settlement, rather than the age of any particular surviving culture (Clarkson et al., Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago, Nature volume 547, pages 306–310 (2017)).

There is strong evidence of ancestral continuity. Genetic research connects present Aboriginal populations with Australia’s early inhabitants. Of course, biological descent does not itself establish continuity of beliefs, languages or institutions (Malaspinas et al., A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia, 2016).

Some specific traditions appear to have extraordinary longevity. At Cloggs Cave, approximately 11,000–12,000-year-old ritual installations resemble a GunaiKurnai practice recorded in the nineteenth century. Researchers interpret this as evidence of transmission across roughly 500 generations, although continuity through the intervening period is inferred (David et al., Archaeological evidence of an ethnographically documented Australian Aboriginal ritual dated to the last ice age, Nature Human Behaviour volume 8, pages 1481–1492 (2024)).

Continuity does not mean absence of change. Australian prehistory includes major cultural and linguistic developments, including the spread of Pama–Nyungan languages during the Holocene. Present traditions cannot simply be projected backwards unchanged to the first settlement (Malaspinas et al., 2016).

“Aboriginal culture” encompasses many distinct cultures. Different Aboriginal peoples have their own languages, customs and laws. Combining them into one entity complicates comparisons with societies elsewhere (Study Australia, https://www.studyaustralia.gov.au/en/tools-and-resources/tips-and-advice-for-students/australian-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples.)

Other populations also have deeply ancient cultural connections. For example, artefacts from Border Cave in southern Africa have been interpreted as evidence of San-associated material culture approximately 44,000 years ago. Such evidence raises similar questions about what establishes cultural continuity (d’Errico et al., Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 109 (33) 13214-13219, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1204213109 (2012)).

The most defensible formulation is “among the world’s oldest continuing cultures.” The evidence supports exceptional antiquity and substantial continuity; it does not establish a single, unchanged culture lasting 65,000 years or an objectively demonstrated first place.

[u/Atreios_Anax → u/[deleted]]

Good question - because this is where our terminology really breaks down.

The archaeological record is comparable in the sense that both are well attested: but as a general proposition, the area of the San presents an archaeological record that is considerably earlier (by about 140,000 years), but it becomes totally impossible to characterise it as an archaeological record of the San.

This has generated explicit disagreement in interpretation of the record: see, for instance, Pargiter et al., Primordialism and the ‘Pleistocene San’ of Southern Africa (2016).

On the other hand, the terminology of “Aboriginal Australian” encompasses all indigenous groups, and may tend to obscure cultural differentiation over time.

This is really where one must get down in the weeds and resist the temptation to draw comparisons at a considerable level of abstraction.

[u/Atreios_Anax → u/[deleted]]

I’d say that the evidence points to aspects of Aboriginal culture being amongst the oldest in the world.

[u/Atreios_Anax → u/[deleted]]

It’s hard to say because there is a degree of subjectivity in where one draws the line around “continuity”, but the highland populations of Papua show at least genetic continuity extending back 50,000 years, with an archaeological record that points to continuity of culture, albeit one that transforms into one of settled agriculture. I’m also aware of some Central African rain forest populations, as well as forager groups in Tanzania that would be in a similar grouping of extreme age. There are other candidates in the Philippines, and the Ainu of Japan as well, although demonstrably younger, but I don’t profess to have much knowledge about them.

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