As R.M. W. Dixon writes : Aboriginal specialists willing to generalise believe all Aboriginal myths across Australia , in combination , represent a kind of unwritten ( oral ) library within which Aboriginal peoples learn about the world and perceive a peculiarly Aboriginal ` reality ' dictated by concepts and values vastly different from those of western societies : In 1926 a British anthropologist specialising in Australian Aboriginal ethnology and ethnography , Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown , noted many Aboriginal groups widely distributed across the Australian continent all appeared to share variations of a single ( common ) myth telling of an unusually powerful , often creative , often dangerous snake or serpent of sometimes enormous size closely associated with the rainbows , rain , rivers , and deep waterholes .
From this library , Aboriginal people learn about the world and see an Aboriginal ` reality ' with concepts and values vastly different from those of western societies : In 1926 a British anthropologist , Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown , noted many Aboriginal groups across Australia shared versions of a single myth .