2018/06/06 by Duane W. Hamacher, Hamacher, Duane W., Kirsten Banks +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Australian Indigenous Culture and History #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.02462
openalex publication_date 2018/06/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people were close observers of planets and their motions, noting the relative brightness of the planets, their motions along the ecliptic, retrograde motion, the relationship between Venus and its proximity to the Sun, Venus' connection to the Sun through zodiacal light, and the synodic cycle of Venus, particularly as it transitions from the Evening Star to the Morning Star. The dearth of descriptions of planets in Aboriginal traditions may be due to the gross incompleteness of recorded astronomical traditions, and of ethnographic bias and misidentification in the anthropological record. Ethnographic fieldwork with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is revealing new, previously unrecorded knowledge about the planets and their related phenomena.