Baijini
Baijini are a mythical people mentioned in the
The name Baijini
According to Garry Trompf, the word "Baijini" itself is said to have been derived from a Makassarese root with the meaning "women".[1][a] Joseph Needham wondered if the word Baijini itself might not have been derived from Chinese bái rén (白人, "white people" (i.e., those with lighter skin than the Australian natives), běirén (北人, "northern people"), or even běijīngrén (北京人, "people from Beijing").[2]
The Baijini in Yolngu legend
In the Djanggawul
The
Theories
It has been argued that the account of the Baijini in the Aboriginal folklore are in fact a mythological reflection of the experiences of some Aboriginals who have traveled to
The Australian anthropologist
the Baijini, although partially mythological are, rather, historical; for they are said to have been pre-Macassans, primarily traders and aliens to the coast, and not in any way creative as were the Djanggawul. They are, however, treated in the myth as if contemporary with these Ancestral Beings.[9]
Berndt added that similar to the
The following year. the
Baijini and Shou lao
Fitzgerald's allusion was a figurine which had been dug up 4 feet down among the roots of a
Peter Worsley took up Fitzgerald's remark in 1955, making a succinct synthesis of the overall scholarship regarding pre-European contacts with northern Australia. In his essay, he mentioned the Baijini myths current among the Yolngu:
In eastern Arnhem Land, moreover, the aborigines are quite categorical in their statements that the Macassarese were preceded another people they term the Baijini. These people were different from the later Macassarese, though like the Macassarese, they came for the purpose of collecting trepang, a sea-slug which abounds in the shallow waters off the Arnhem Land coast.. The Baijini had an advanced technology: they possessed hand-looms, were agriculturalists, and built huts during their stays in Australia. One of the more interesting comments made about the Baijini is a reference to their light-coloured skins. Whilst it is possible that these people may have been Chinese, the trade in trepang was usually carried out by non-Chinese, the Chinese middlemen coming into the picture at Koepang and other such markets. Fitzgerald suggests that any Chinese voyages would most likely have been scientific and exploratory expeditions rather than trading expeditions. The Baijini, then, may have been another Indonesian people, and not necessarily Chinese.'[22]
J.V.G. Mills, in a note to a translation of a Ming dynasty account by Ma Huan concerning Chinese voyages at that time, suggested that if, of the many Asian people whose visits might have engendered a legend about the Baijini, they were Chinese, the likely explanation would be that it referred to some vessel detached from the fleet of Zheng He, which would have sailed south from Timor.[23]
Modern theories
Anthropologist Ian McIntosh has interpreted the cycle's mention of the Baijini as a fictional history devised by the Yolngu, centered on
This Birrinydji was said to have the power to morph at will from being white to black. His people wore sarongs, distinctive whale-tail shaped hats and their craft flew a flag banded with blue, red and blue stripes. These features are correlated by McIntosh with a Macassan story that narrates how a group of Gowans sailed south to find refuge in Arnhem Land after the Macassan Kingdom of Gowa was attacked by a joint Dutch-Bugis force in 1667.[27] Yet elements of still earlier encounters seem to be embedded in these tales since what appear to be allusions to Islamic and Portuguese visits are also present in the myth cycle. For example, a moon-dwelling deity called 'Allah' is alluded to in funerary rites. Pre-Macassan men in 'mirrors' (shining armour) are said to have rallied troops on Dholtji's shore and the Warramiri clan elders referred to Dholtji as Mecca.[26]
Beneath these possible traces in myth suggestive of some pre-modern contact with South Asian traders, the Baijini strarum of legend, in this light, would appear to evoke specifically an older pre-Macassan order. One index of this is that Dholtji songs fail to mention precisely what the Macassan traders sought, trepang.
Recent mentions
The Chinese origin hypothesis for the Baijini has been recently revived by the American journalist Louise Levathes.[30]
See also
- Makassan contact with Australia
- Trepanging, the act of collecting sea cucumber
- Patorani and padewakang, two types of perahu used for trepanging by Makassan
- Yolngu
Notes
- ^ According to Swain, the presence of women among the Baijini was a defining difference between these mythic people and the historical Makassan trepang fishermen. The Baijini described in the legend cycle had sought to permanently establish themselves by bringing their wives and families (Swain 1993, p. 170).
- ^ The word may be of Portuguese origin but means 'hidden gift' (McIntosh 2008, p. 170).
Citations
- ^ Swain 1991, p. 232.
- ^ Needham, Wang & Lu 1971, p. 538, note c.
- ^ a b Berndt & Berndt 1947, p. 134.
- ^ Berndt 2004, pp. 24–28.
- ^ Swain 1993, p. 170.
- ^ Swain 2005, p. 51.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, p. 172.
- ^ Berndt & Berndt 1954, p. 34.
- ^ Berndt 2004, p. xix.
- ^ Berndt 2004, p. 28.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, p. 174.
- ^ Swain 1993, pp. 170, 183.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, pp. 166, 174.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1953.
- ^ Cross 2011, p. 292.
- ^ Worsnop 1897, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Needham, Wang & Lu 1971, p. 537, note i.
- ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 141.
- ^ Worsnop 1897, p. 13.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1953, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1953, p. 80.
- ^ Worsley 1955, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Ma Huan 1970, p. 22.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, pp. 167–169.
- ^ McIntosh 2009, pp. 365–366.
- ^ a b McIntosh 2008, p. 171.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, pp. 168–170.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, p. 173.
- ^ McIntosh 2008, p. 178.
- ^ Levathes 2014, pp. 182, 188 195–197.
Sources
- ISBN 978-1-136-53864-3.
- JSTOR 2844477.
- Berndt, Ronald M.; Berndt, Catherine (1954). Arnhem Land: its history and its people. F. W. Cheshire. p. 34.
- Clausen, Lisa (14 September 2013). "Out of Africa". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- Cross, Jack (2011). Great Central State: The Foundation of the Northern Territory. Wakefield Press. ISBN 978-1-862-54877-0.
- Fitzgerald, C. P. (1953). "A Chinese Discovery of Australia?". In Moore, T. Inglis(ed.). Australia Writes: An anthology. F. W. Cheshire. pp. 75–84.
- Levathes, Louise (2014). When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405–1433. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-504-00736-8.
- ISBN 978-052101032-0.
- McIntosh, Ian S (2006). "A Treaty with the Macassans? Burrumarra and the Dholtji Ideal". The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. 7 (2): 153–172. S2CID 159897713.
- McIntosh, Ian S (2008). "Pre-Macassans at Dholtji? Exploring one of north-east Arnhem Land's great conundrums" (PDF). In ISBN 978-1-876-94488-9 – via ResearchGate.
- McIntosh, Ian S (2009). ""Why Umbella Killed His Master": Aboriginal Reconciliation and the Australian wild dog (canis lupus dingo)". In Waldau, Paul; Patton, Kimberley (eds.). A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics. Columbia University Press. pp. 360–370. ISBN 978-0-231-13643-3.
- McIntosh, Ian S. (2013). "Unbirri's pre-Macassan legacy, or how the Yolngu became black". In Clark, Marshall; May, Sally K. (eds.). Macassan History and Heritage: Journeys, Encounters and Influences. JSTOR j.ctt3fgjzc.8.
- ISBN 0-521-07060-0.
- Swain, Tony (February 1991). "The Earth Mother from Northern Waters". S2CID 162308386.
- Swain, Tony (1993). A place for strangers: towards a history of Australian Aboriginal being. ISBN 978-0-521-44691-4.
- Swain, Tony (2005). "Australia". In Trompf, Garry; Swain, Tony (eds.). The Religions of Oceania. ISBN 978-1-134-92851-4.
- ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
- JSTOR 650169.
- Worsnop, Thomas (1897). The prehistoric arts, manufacturers, works, weapons, etc., of the aborigines of Australia (PDF). Adelaide: C.E. Bristow, Government Printer – via Internet Archive.