Babylon, the Bible and the Australian Aborigines

This chapter provides an analysis of the racial and linguistic theories of Dr John Fraser (1834-1904), a Scottish-born schoolmaster from Maitland New South Wales. Fraser's writing on the Australian Aborigines is a good example of the way Biblical theories of race, language and descent were expounded in the southern British colonies and Oceania. These lands included Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Oceania, regions which had been mapped during James Cook's voyages of exploration in the 18th century and were swiftly infiltrated by British colonial forces including their dynamic, mostly Protestant missionary societies. This chapter will seek to place the particular views of John Fraser within this wider frame, analysing the contemporary and more recent reception of Biblical narratives of race, language and migration in the southern world.