Editing Dingo (section)

=== Cultural ===

Cultural opinions about the dingo are often based on its perceived "cunning", and the idea that it is an intermediate between civilisation and wildness.<ref name="heimisch">{{cite journal|last1=Trigger|first1=D|last2=Mulcock|first2=J|last3=Gaynor|first3=A|last4=Toussaint|first4=Y|title=Ecological restoration, cultural preferences and the negotiation of 'nativeness' in Australia|journal=Geoforum|volume=39|pages=1273–83|year=2008|doi=10.1016/j.geoforum.2007.05.010|issue=3}}</ref>

Some of the early European settlers looked on dingoes as domestic dogs, while others thought they were more like wolves. Over the years, dingoes began to attack sheep, and their relationship to the Europeans changed very quickly; they were regarded as devious and cowardly, since they did not fight bravely in the eyes of the Europeans, and vanished into the bush.<ref name="cunning">{{cite web|author=Parker, Merryl|title=The Cunning Dingo|url=http://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/642_thecunningdingo.pdf|publisher=Animals & Society Institute|year=2007|access-date=9 May 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727122147/http://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/642_thecunningdingo.pdf|archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> Additionally, they were seen as [[promiscuity|promiscuous]] or as [[devil]]s with a [[venom]]ous bite or saliva, so they could be killed unreservedly. Over the years, dingo trappers gained some prestige for their work, especially when they managed to kill hard-to-catch dingoes. Dingoes were associated with thieves, [[Vagrancy (people)|vagabonds]], [[bushranger]]s, and [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] opponents. From the 1960s, politicians began calling their opponents "dingo", meaning they were cowardly and treacherous, and it has become a popular form of attack since then.<ref name="broadcast">{{cite web|author1=Williams, Robyn |author2=Corbett, Laurie |author3=Jenkins, David |title=The Dingo in Australia|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s314366.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020212122242/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s314366.htm|archive-date=2002-02-12|publisher=The Science Show|date=23 June 2001|access-date=8 May 2009|display-authors=etal}}</ref> Today, the word "dingo" still stands for "coward" and "cheat", with verb and adjective forms used, as well.<ref name="heimisch"/>

The image of the dingo has ranged among some groups from the instructive<ref name="bringing">{{cite thesis|author=Merryl Ann Parker|title=Bringing the dingo home: Discursive representations of the dingo by aboriginal, colonial and contemporary Australians|type=PhD thesis|publisher=University of Tasmania|url=https://eprints.utas.edu.au/1196/|via=UTAS ePrints|date=April 2006|doi=10.25959/23211383.v1|access-date=24 March 2023|archive-date=24 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324180653/https://eprints.utas.edu.au/1196/|url-status=live}}</ref> to the demonic.<ref name="beastwithin">{{cite thesis |author=Howard, Peter |title=The beast within: An exploration on Australian constructions of wildlife |type=PhD thesis |publisher=Griffith University |url=https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/366876 |doi=10.25904/1912/2006 |hdl=10072/366876 |via=Australian Digital Theses Program |date=22 November 2006 |access-date=24 March 2023 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324180645/https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/366876 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ceremonies (like a keen at the [[Cape York Peninsula]] in the form of howling)<ref name="Ian"/> and [[dreamtime]] stories are connected to the dingo, which were passed down through the generations.

The dingo plays a prominent role in the Dreamtime stories of indigenous Australians,<ref name=roseC3/> but it is rarely depicted in their [[cave paintings]] when compared with the extinct thylacine.<ref name=gunn2010/><ref name=smithC3/> One of the tribal elders of the people of the [[Yarralin, Northern Territory]] region tells that the Dreamtime dingo is the ancestor of both dingoes and humans. The dingoes "are what we would be if we were not what we are."<ref name=roseC3/>

Similar to how Europeans acquired dingoes, the Aboriginal people of Australia acquired dogs from the immigrants very quickly. This process was so fast that [[Francis Barrallier]] (surveyor on early expeditions around the colony at Port Jackson) discovered in 1802 that five dogs of European origin were there before him.<ref name="broadcast"/> One theory holds that other domestic dogs adopt the role of the "pure" dingo.<ref name="bringing"/> Introduced animals, such as the water buffalo and the domestic cat, have been adopted into the indigenous Aboriginal culture in the forms of [[ritual]]s, traditional paintings, and dreamtime stories.<ref name="heimisch"/>

Most of the published myths originate from the [[Western Desert cultural bloc|Western Desert]] and show a remarkable complexity. In some stories, dingoes are the central characters, while in others, they are only minor ones. One time, an ancestor from the Dreamtime created humans and dingoes or gave them their current shape. Stories mention creation, socially acceptable behaviour, and explanations why some things are the way they are. Myths exist about [[Shapeshifting|shapeshifters]] (human to dingo or vice versa), "dingo-people", and the creation of certain landscapes or elements of those landscapes, like waterholes or mountains.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}