Meteoritics and cosmology among the Aboriginal cultures of Central\n Australia

2011/03/02 by Duane W. Hamacher, Hamacher, Duane W.
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Australian Indigenous Culture and History #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1103.0595

openalex publication_date 2011/03/02 · openalex created_date 2022/10/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral\ntraditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and Luritja Aboriginal cultures of\nCentral Australia. A component of this cosmology relates to meteors,\nmeteorites, and impact craters. This paper discusses the role of meteoritic\nphenomena in Arrernte and Luritja cosmology, showing not only that these groups\nincorporated this phenomenon in their cultural traditions, but that their oral\ntraditions regarding the relationship between meteors, meteorites and impact\nstructures suggests the Arrernte and Luritja understood that they are directly\nrelated.\n

Related

• Australian Aboriginal Geomythology: Eyewitness Accounts of Cosmic\n Impacts?
• Recorded Accounts of Meteoritic Events in the Oral Traditions of\n Indigenous Australians
• The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi People and their Neighbours
• Finding meteorite impacts in Aboriginal oral tradition
• "Bridging the Gap" through Australian Cultural Astronomy