The main theme of the book at hand is to discover which and to what extent mythic metaphors are responsible for the sustaining of a sense of identity among Australian Aborigines. A shared feeling of identity - so-called Aboriginality as proclaimed by modern Aboriginal revival movements - is shaped by a creative treatment of their own cultural memory which has been constructed upon the cornerstone of a traditional (pre-colonial) mythical symbolism. Since the 1990s, Aboriginality has become an important topic not only in anthropological, but political and legal discourse as well. A number of political disputes and trials has led to numerous attempts to define Aboriginality on the basis of either racial or cultural identity. As far as cultural identity is concerned, the proposed solution to those numerous arguments and definitional conflicts has been to find possible sources for the construction of Aboriginality within a common Aboriginal tradition. According to the theories of Jan Assmann and Anthony D. Smith, the reservoir of tradition should be researched for basic myths concerning the creation (cosmogony), the ancestors or emergence (ethnogenesis), and the establishment of homeland because collective identity is generally expressed through these tales. An overlap of the image of the world expressed by modern Aborigines onto the mythic metaphors present in the epic pre-colonial systems may be proof of continuity and, thus, the authenticity of contemporary Aboriginality. The research presented herein constitutes an attempt to unveil and elucidate the fundamental metaphors concerning human identity as these are expressed in myths. Firstly, the Arrernte tradition of rella mannerinja (the “glued people”) is critically analyzed and compared to other Australian accounts of anthropogenic mythology. As a result, the process by which the home territory is created is understood by the Arrernte as an analogy for the process of male initiation. Peopling the land is connected with the achievement of identity (kuruna) by a human being. Continuity of this process is allegorically explained as the wanderings of the Tyelpe ("Native Cat") ancestors – a mythical tradition concentrated on the establishment of the culminating phase of initiation (Engwura). Moreover, the key, sacred object of the ceremony - the kauuaua pole - is described in cosmological terms as an analogy for the Milky Way constellation. Tyelpe ancestors are responsible for providing adequate rituals of 364 Summary initiation and for the exchange of sacred wisdom with women, i.e., the establishment of proper gender relations. The results of this analysis are corroborated by research concerning the Arnhem Land tradition of the Djanggawul sibling wanderings. Both traditions reveal a common symbolism of “making the country”: the creation of landscape features, the endowment of life-giving sources of water on this territory, the establishment of reservoirs of spirit-children, and the revelation of sacred knowledge (maraiin) to the inhabitants of that homeland are all mutually metaphorized as components of a single system. One of its important features is the interdependency between male and female principles: in order to properly form the native country, ancestors should establish an exchange relationship between men and women. The alleged male/female opposition is examined on the basis of the Wauwaluk sisters mythology from Arnhem Land. As a consequence of an analysis of the symbolism found in the mythical and ritual Wauwaluk complex, a matryoshka principle is formulated: the male/female opposition is transformed in the mythology into a series of transformations: male into female and vice versa as a way of containing the male in the female or the female in the male. The purpose of such metaphorization is to establish a strict equivalence between the masculine sacred power rooted in knowledge of the myths and rituals, and the feminine power to create life because only this connection allows the "making of the country". Numerous examples of the same idea are observed in other Australian mythologies, especially in the myth of the Yabuduruwa foundation or that of the establishment of the Ubar ceremony. Accordingly, the powerful Aboriginal symbolism of swallowing and regurgitation is explained via the myth of the cannibal monster. Metaphorically swallowing is compared to the process of insemination, and regurgitation to the ritual death of adepts during initiation ceremonies. The process by which initiates are circuited from birth to death and vice versa is a metaphor for the vegetation cycle. Consecutively, the surprisingly rich symbolism of vertical movements is investigated. The horizontal wandering of ancestors is metaphorically expressed as the movement of stars and constellations. Therefore, a strong presence of initiation symbolism is encoded in the characteristics of the key constellations of the Southern Hemisphere: the Milky Way and the dark nebulae inside it, the Southern Cross, and the Coal Sack Nebula. The Milky Way becomes a symbol of the axis mundi – the cosmic tree, kauaua pole, or heavenly river run – which allows for clarification of symbolic meanings present in the myths already studied. Sky symbolism, in turn, encodes the basic religious personifications: the Rainbow Serpent and the Supreme Being (Baiame). The specific role which links sky symbolism to the initiation procedures is played by the Moon through its relationship with the Possum and reincarnation. Finally, the universality of Aboriginal metaphors for "making country" is proved. The Aboriginal image of the world is based upon the interpenetration of the ideas of cosmogony, the creation of the human being, and the attainment of sacred knowledge.