Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

Article


Hamacher, Duane W.. 2018. "Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians." The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 29 (1), pp. 89-107. https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12257
Article Title

Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

ERA Journal ID9452
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorHamacher, Duane W.
Journal TitleThe Australian Journal of Anthropology
Journal Citation29 (1), pp. 89-107
Number of Pages19
Year2018
Place of PublicationAustralia
ISSN1035-8811
1757-6547
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12257
Web Address (URL)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/taja.12257
Abstract

Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red-giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the descriptions of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences.

Keywordscultural astronomy, history of astronomy, ethnoastronomy, Aboriginal Australians, Indigenous Knowledge Systems
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020510109. Stellar astronomy and planetary systems
450601. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander astronomy and cosmology
Byline AffiliationsUniversity of Southern Queensland
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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