'Bridging the gap' through Australian cultural astronomy

Duane W. Hamacher; Ray P. Norris

doi:10.1017/S1743921311012713

'Bridging the gap' through Australian cultural astronomy

Duane W. Hamacher, Ray P. Norris

Department of Indigenous Studies

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution

7 Citations (Scopus)

146 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges between Cultures
Editors	Clive L. N. Ruggles
Pages	282-290
Number of pages	9
Volume	7
Edition	S278
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921311012713
Publication status	Published - Jan 2011

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Number	S278
Volume	7
ISSN (Print)	17439213
ISSN (Electronic)	17439221

Keywords

Aboriginal Australians
archaeoastronomy
Betelgeuse
Eclipses
ethnoastronomy
stone arrangements
variable stars (Eta Carinae

Access to Document

10.1017/S1743921311012713

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 332 KB

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'Bridging the gap' through Australian cultural astronomy. / Hamacher, Duane W.; Norris, Ray P.

Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges between Cultures. ed. / Clive L. N. Ruggles. Vol. 7 S278. ed. 2011. p. 282-290 (Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union; Vol. 7, No. S278).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution

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