Nurture

Fighting between tribes was not unknown, but in no case could this fighting be caused by, or lead to, the taking over of the territory of one tribe by another. Neither side would consider that situation. To the Aboriginal tribal person, the land they were born in is part of them, their spirits were believed to reside in places like sacred waterholes or other places when a person died until it entered the body of a pregnant woman and was reborn as a baby. So the lack of the possibility of acquisition of a neighbour's territory by any tribe removed an excuse for war that was present in other parts of the so-called civilised world. Even when the tribes did have wars, there were often stylised substitutes for outright war that minimised death or injury. Another case in which they had customs, that would seem to be more civilised than those of the rest of the world, where wars have always been fought over anything that a powerful leader considered a good excuse to gain extra territory.

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