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Constellations and Time Keeping Used by Indigenous Communities in the Northwestern Amazonian Region

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Constellations and Time Keeping Used by Indigenous Communities in the Northwestern Amazonian Region Constellations and Time Keeping used by Indigenous Communities in the Northwestern Amazonian Region Walmir Thomazi Cardoso Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo Abstract: Tukano, which is also used to refer to the This article is the result of research conducted from ethnic group among whom we developed 2005 to 2007 in Brazil’s Amazon region. Relying on our research. Other languages such as participant observation and ethnomathematics sources, Tuyuka and Desana are very similar and on practical sky observation activities, and on classical correspond to other ethnic groups, which sources about constellations observed in Brazil’s Ama- our research also included. These Indians zon region, a sky mapping project was undertaken with Tukano, Desana and Tuyuka indigenous communities. live in the border region where Colombia, At the Yupuri School, an astronomical calendar was cre- Brazil and Venezuela meet. Although they ated that integrates specific environmental and climate live in different countries, they share many events based on descriptions of many constellations from similar cultural features. Languages are different indigenous communities. This investigation only one of the common aspects among found that in the northwest, Amazonian Indians mark them. rain periods, drought, planting and harvesting by the set During the last quarter months of and rise of major constellations. To complement these 2005, I was invited to visit a Tukano tribe findings, non-Indian materials were also analyzed by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA)–a mainly from the researchers of the early 20th century who worked in the northwestern state of Amazonas. well-known Brazilian non-governmental organization. A group of ISA’s anthropol- Keywords: Cultural astronomy, Indigenous ogists involved with indigenous issues in Knowledge, Amazonian Indians, Timekeep- this region received a request to call in an ing, Indigenous Calendar astronomer. This demand originated from a group of indigenous teachers concerned Introduction with traditional teaching topics at the People around the world have searched for Yupuri School. This school is one–among complex correlations between the skies other–indigenous differentiated schools in and humankind for as long as we know. this region. Following educational pro- The northwestern Amazonian peoples are grams that accommodate indigenous life, no different. They learn from each other traditions and dialogues among Indian and about the skies as observers and they are non-Indian knowledges, these institutions strongly encouraged to do so. The situa- have been stimulated by special support tion is not as unusual as some have thought from current Brazilian educational gov- (Aveni 2008; Chamberlain et al. 2005; ernment programs. Within this context, Kelley and Milone 2011; Selin 2000). anthropologists and indigenous teachers There are more than 23 different lan- planned a workshop to engage representa- guages spoken in the region known as tive members of all communities who “Dog’s Head” in the northwestern part of speak Tukano variant languages, including the Amazonas state in Brazil. (Figure 1) A the Tuyuka and Desana. significant number of these languages are Working in the region over two years, based on a singular trunk language called we developed three different but connect- Journal of Astronomy in Culture 1(1), 2016, pp. 23-39 Copyright © International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture 24 Figure 1. Dog's Head in northwestern Amazonian spired by volvelles (wheel charts or dynam- region. Detail is focused on the Tiquié River. ical circular information tools), extremely Source: http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/ th tukano/1499 popular during the early 20 century but older even than that (Helfand 2002). Not only were the final results of circular dy- namical calendars important but also the descriptions of each constellation. Most of them have been described by other re- searchers, mainly anthropologists and eth- nographers from late 19th and early 20th centuries (Koch-Grünberg 1969; Lévi- Strauss 2004a; Brüzzi Alves da Silva 1962). The main ones were remembered by wise elders and senior citizens as well as com- munity leaders, but this knowledge was spread out along a wide zone. Therefore, the workshops were part of a strategy to gather different ethnic leaders and elders together to determine the current state of ed workshops (Cardoso 2007). In the first indigenous astronomical knowledge and its one, we hoped to investigate some basic as- correlation with other conceptions of their tronomical concepts within Tukano cul- natural world (Cardoso 2007). ture; we started by telling them selected The corroboration of historical myths and stories from our Occidental sources through field research conducted constellations. We brought to light some in the Yupuri indigenous school allowed us myths—such as Orion and the Scorpion, to show that, besides constellations, a or other stories such as the flying horse group of people inhabiting the Middle Pegasus, Andromeda and her closer rela- Tiquié River region identified correlations tives, and how they were transformed into between fauna, flora and weather events constellations—for an avid group of silent and astronomical phenomena. In other students. As they became interested in the words, our work during the investigation mythology, though, there was a sudden period became broader than either the movement to tell me some histories of their study of constellations out of the Greco- constellations. They bestowed upon me Roman matrix or an attempt to set new extended miscellaneous narratives show- versions of a calendar. ing me a complex cultural big picture of The calendar itself is not only a tool for Amazonia’s territory, including the main reckoning the passage of time but also for part of their conceptual natural world showing the complex correlations among framework. star positions and natural phenomena as a During the second and third work- whole. The formulation of these new cal- shops we followed similar strategies to de- endars is linked with natural resource man- scribe constellations and we developed to- agement because it is not the case of an as- gether early drafts of circular calendars. In tronomical study of measuring time in and this specific case we suggested, from our re- of itself. Stars here can be seen as part of a search, a dynamic circular calendar in- complex landscape made up from nature Cardoso, W. 25 and, within indigenous concepts, supernat- Our work was developed as qualitative re- ural elements and phenomena. search and started by using ethnomathe- From the beginning of our research, matics references based on Ubiratan several Tukano Indians told us that they D’Ambrosio’s (2002) educational concep- recognized significant positions of stars in tions. Beyond their direct application the sky. They pointed to special locations within mathematical education theories, where a group of stars set together with the they are also correlated with non-formal sunset (heliacal set). These events are cor- mathematical thinking and how they are related with such natural phenomenon as connected to culture and epistemology floods and low river level; times to grow (D’Ambrosio 2005). We also worked with different plants; seeding and harvesting pe- some concepts of participatory research, riods; increasing or decreasing amounts of following Thiollent (2008), beginning with edible fish or other availabilities of suste- our first field research. Currently there are nance. Therefore, for them an astronomi- important discussions about methodology cal event is not only what we recognize as within the study of astronomy in cultures celestial phenomenon but also a variable (Ruggles 2015). As an interdisciplinary re- amount of events related to each other in a search area, there are different contexts complex panorama. To grasp part of this that come from both the social sciences intricate puzzle was essential to building and humanities. The matter of context has the dynamical circular calendar with shown itself to be an important issue and them. will be investigated further by the author in a forthcoming paper. Methodology Indigenous leaders and anthropolo- Figure 2. A Tukano constellation of the Viper, represented during the first workshop in 2005. JAC, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016 26 gists of the ISA made arrangements to de- Figure 3. Naked-eye sky observation with the com- velop one workshop about the astronomy munity. (Photo by Pieter-Jan Van der Veld) of the upper Rio Negro region late in 2005. They invited me, as an astronomer, and I started to prepare some materials to take with me. I selected sky charts without any labels of our constellations, asterisms, stel- lar names or lines on them. I brought a tel- escope and binoculars. Also, I prepared some versions of sky maps with computer programs such as Stellarium. The best tech- nique to recognize the main Tukano con- stellations was the comparison between the natural sky and its simulated projection in different situations. But it was only success- their descriptions and observing the sky ful after some sessions of conversation and with the same person in different positions long talks about our own constellations. and not at the same time, we found the Our first workshop really started when constellations shown in this paper. It is they heard the Occidental myths and nar- important to emphasize the importance of ratives of the sky. We told them the stories having more than one meeting with the behind the constellations of the ancient same storyteller to double-check infor- Greeks. We waited and asked for similar mation, asking him, for example, about the topics expecting a similar behavior from position of one specific constellation in a them and they answered with narratives of distinct moment in a different night and their myths and told us about what they site of observation. It was important for consider to be their most important con- this technique, resulting in fewer mistakes. stellations. We asked about the appear- The third technique was associated ance and the location of each constellation with the students’ constellation notebooks.
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