Those Aboriginal Telescopes
Developments down-under – specifically, from a press release by Australia’s national science research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation:
The 64-metre telescope is located on Wiradjuri country in central west New South Wales, approximately 380km west of Sydney. It received the name Murriyang, which represents the ‘Skyworld’ where a prominent creator spirit of the Wiradjuri Dreaming, Biyaami, lives.
It remains unclear whether the radio telescope, which relayed mankind’s first steps on the Moon, will be able to detect aboriginal creator spirits, rainbow serpents, celestial emus, or Barraiya, the aboriginal deity who, as you’ll doubtless be aware, created the first vagina.
Executive Manager of CSIRO’s Office of Indigenous Engagement, Louisa Warren, said giving the telescopes traditional names acknowledges and pays respect to the astronomical knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The particulars of that “astronomical knowledge,” also referred to as “ancient wisdom,” and its bearing on modern radio astronomy, are, alas, not shared in the press release. We are, however, told that the “telescope naming project,” which involved CSIRO staff, Wiradjuri Elders, the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and various other bodies, required “over two years” of work. Readers intrigued by the promise of astronomy being enhanced with, and perhaps superseded by, ancient aboriginal wisdom can partake of this cosmic bong rip.
Update, via the comments:
As noted previously, it’s hard to miss the pretension around this “ancient wisdom,” the patronising dishonesty, and the implication that the rest of us are expected to pretend too. But the definition of astronomy – a branch of science that uses mathematics, physics and chemistry to study and explain celestial objects – is being stretched in order to flatter primitive mythology with zero scientific content beyond a very rudimentary calendar. And I’m not sure what’s achieved by gushing over the fact that what we now know as the constellation of Orion was referred to as a canoe by an arrested Stone Age foraging culture. A culture that, despite tens of thousands of years of purported “astronomy,” had bugger all to show for it.
While Galileo Galilei was calculating the heights of lunar mountains and discovering the moons of Jupiter, our aboriginal “astronomers” had little to say on the subject. And while Angelo Secchi was pioneering astronomical spectroscopy – and proving that the blinding disc in the midday sky must be the same kind of object as those twinkling specks seen at night, only much, much closer – and pondering what follows from that realisation – our aboriginal “astronomers” were still banging on about sky emus. No “Eureka!” moments there. What’s notable about aboriginal “astronomy,” and aboriginal culture more generally, is that it stayed primitive, all but prehistoric, for such an incredibly long time.
Somewhat related. And of course this. Via Janice Fiamengo.
Let’s not forget “Those Aboriginal Stone Houses and Crops” in Bruce Pascoe’s (inadvertently) fantasy history “Dark Emu”. There is NO evidence, anywhere in Oz, of pre-Europeans cities of stone built houses and aboriginal farmers. And yet, the book is a best seller, highly rated and on school curricula.
@ Daniel Ream | November 21, 2020 at 08:57
“…the natives used to stampede hundreds of buffalo at a time off of the cliffs because it was easier than hunting them.”
Pity they didn’t do it to walruses; they could have blamed climate change.
DP
Have a look at this article and try to tell who is the European coloniser and who is the oppressed native. If you can tell straight away, you must have access to one of those automated chain-termination DNA sequencing machines that Captain Cook discovered on the shores of Botany Bay.
http://www.filedropper.com/img8491
Have a look at this article and try to tell who is the European coloniser and who is the oppressed native.
Cannot view it without registering. Don’t want to do that.
I love Inuit prints, they are beautiful and the images are great. BUT, Inuit printing DID NOT exist until about the mid 1950s and the technology was introduced by white artists and economic development people. The Inuit have run with the technology so kudos to them, but the whole business of Inuit Art exists only because of the introduction of Western technology
Pity they didn’t do it to walruses; they could have blamed climate change.
They didn’t need to. Walrusses can’t run on land; the Innu would literally butcher them alive en masse on the shores.
I love when Plains Indians of Canada and the US wax on and on about their great horse culture without acknowledging the reality that if the Spanish conquistadors hadn’t lost their horses there would be NO horse culture because the horse is not native to North, Central or South America. They need to thank those evil conquistadors. There will be no reprimands for Plains Indians for appropriating another culture.
Oh, it’s even better than that, Maureen: horses first *evolved* in North America, and it’s pretty likely that the Indians’ ancestors wiped them off the continent (or were at least a major cause of the extinction):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_the_United_States#Extinction_and_return
Fortunately, some horses had already migrated to Asia by that point, and so the world was kept safe for the dreams of little girls everywhere. Nevertheless, so much for all that “living in harmony with nature” BS!