澳洲心理学：澳大利亚土著居民对文化的适应过程
身份是一个人被他人感知的方式中不可磨灭的一部分。因此，当试图回答“我们是谁”或“他们是谁”等问题时，外表及其所代表的一切都是一个非常重要的问题。从最早的时代开始，身份标记的问题就是识别个体和群体的本质。早期区分“他”和“她”是可能的，因为着装、发型和化妆的方式不同。这些身份维持机制在某些社区已经建立，但在其他社区已经消失或在很大程度上被消除。因此，重要的是要了解一些非常强大的身份，帮助人们在他们的生活中引导自己。身份被理解为一个人出生和成长的社会文化规则的表现。它是一个社会化过程的一部分,吸收了婴儿,儿童和青年阶段成为他们精神深深植根于化妆,思维方式和推导的结论以及他们项目社会存在的方式以及个人和团体的行为乃至整个社区的人。
在过去的几个世纪里，澳大利亚的土著居民接触到了不同的文化。几代人以来，他们一直保持着他们固有的生活方式。然而，文化冲击的威胁、身份的丧失以及加入国家发展和进步主流的压力导致了一些不利的和适得其反的进程。其中一些威胁到了当代澳大利亚原住民身份的社会文化表现的根源(Cobo, 1982)。
当两种文化相遇时，总会有一种形式的规范和道德倾向于给别人留下深刻印象，从而产生一种优越感的冲突。这在世界上的一些土著文化中是可以观察到的，在这些文化中，其他力量影响了改变的背景和改变了东道国文化的特点。同样，在土著居民的栖息地中，澳大利亚的第一波定居者带来了自己的一套规则、同居和生存方式的原则(Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall， & Bailie, 2007)。
曾经自由自在地生活在广阔的野外的土著人，要么被压缩到更小的空间范围内，要么被彻底铲除。有许多敌意和愤怒，这将在东道国人民的心理上留下永久的印记。
渐渐地，剥削、几代人的歧视和缺乏理解都造成了损失。澳大利亚土著居民之间的不信任与日俱增，他们曾经是一个文化丰富、传统上非常强大的民族(埃德加，1980年)。他们沦为边缘人口，实际上是站在发展和进步边缘的“局外人”。他们住在棚户区，而混凝土城市里住着来自世界各地的人。
土著人站在一个十字路口，他们别无选择，只能走两条路。首先，他们可以完全忽视自己的身份，通过采用白人定居者的方式加入主流，或者他们可以在澳大利亚其他地区继续前进的时候被遗弃。
澳洲心理学：澳大利亚土著居民对文化的适应过程
Identity forms an indelible part of the way in which one is perceived by others. Thus, the physical appearance and all that it represents is a very significant issue when attempting to answer questions like ‘Who are we’ or ‘Who are they’. From the earliest times, the issue of identity markers has been to recognize individuals and groups for what they are. Earlier distinctive segregation of ‘him’ and ‘her’ was possible because of manner of dressing, styling the hair, and using the makeup. These identity maintenance mechanisms have been established in certain communities but have vanished or been erased to a large extent in others. Thus, it is significant to understand some of the very strong points of identity that help persons to conduct themselves through their lives. Identity has been understood to be a manifestation of the socio-cultural rubric in which an individual is born and grows up. It is a part of the socialization process which is imbibed by the infant, child and youth stages to become deeply embedded in their mental make-up, way of thinking and deriving conclusions as well as the manner in which they project their social presence as well as behaviour of individuals and groups of people and even the entire communities.
The Aborigine of Australia has been exposed to differing cultures over the past centuries. They have been maintaining their indigenous ways for generations. However, the threat of culture shock, loss of identity and the pressures to join the mainstream of the national development and progress levels have resulted in a number of adverse and counter-productive processes. Some of these have threatened the very roots of the socio-cultural manifestation of the Aborigine identity of contemporary Australia (Cobo, 1982).
When there is a meeting of two cultures, there is always the conflict for supremacy whereby the norms and mores of one form tend to impress themselves on others. This is observable in several indigenous cultures of the world where other forces have influenced the setting in of change and changed traits in the host culture. Similarly, among Aborigine habitats, the first wave of settlers in Australia was to bring its own set of rules and cohabitation and principles of manner of existence (Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall, & Bailie, 2007).
The Aborigines who used to living freely in the vast spread of the open wild areas began to be either telescoped into much smaller spatial confines or were totally uprooted. There was much hostility and ire which was to leave a permanent mark on the psyche of the host population.
Gradually, exploitation, discrimination over successive generations and lack of understanding were to take their toll. Mistrust grew among the Aborigines of Australia who were once a well-established culturally rich and traditionally very strong people (Edgar, 1980). They were reduced to a periphery population that virtually stood as ‘outsiders looking in’ on the outskirts of development and progress. They occupied the shanty towns while the concrete cities housed people from all over the world.
The Aborigine stood at a crossroads where they had no other option but to go either of two ways. Firstly, they could totally ignore their identity and join the mainstream by adopting the ways of the white settlers or secondly they could be left to languish while the rest of Australia moved on.
