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Astronomy and the Dreaming: The Astronomy of the Aboriginal Australians

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Astronomy Across Cultures

Part of the book series: Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science ((SACH,volume 1))

Abstract

The Aboriginal Australians were arguably the world’s first astronomers. Their complex systems of knowledge and beliefs about the heavenly bodies evolved as an integral part of a culture which has been transmitted through song, dance and ritual over more than 40, 000 years, predating by many millennia those of the Babylonians (who probably developed the zodiac familiar to Western cultures in about 2000 BC), the ancient Greeks, the Chinese, the Indians and the Incas. More importantly for our understanding of their significance, Aboriginal beliefs survived, until very recently, within a complete cultural context. It is impossible for us to understand what hunter-gatherer Europeans thought when they looked up at the northern constellations some 15, 000 years ago, for we have no access to the body of knowledge which provided the context for their ideas about the stars. Even the beliefs and legends associated with Babylonian, Greek and Roman astronomy have come to us only as isolated stories, divorced from the culture of which they were an integral part so that we can not appreciate the complex resonances they carried for those whose stories they were.

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Authors
  1. Roslynn D. Haynes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    Helaine Selin

  2. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Sun Xiaochun

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Haynes, R.D. (2000). Astronomy and the Dreaming: The Astronomy of the Aboriginal Australians. In: Selin, H., Xiaochun, S. (eds) Astronomy Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5820-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4179-6

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