Sirius, Dogon, Fish-People in 2 parts, pt 1

[Matthew P Wiener]

I'm not sure why this is appearing on the list, but perhaps it has
something to do with some weird Pynchonian astronomy I missed.  As
for the factual accuracy, just a few comments.

Eric Alan Weinstein <E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk> writes:

>  HOW A 'PRIMITIVE' AFRICAN TRIBE

You know you're being set up for an anthropological con game when the
word "primitive" is brought in from the beginning.

>				   COULD MAKE MAJOR ASTRONOMICAL
> DISCOVERIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO A SINGLE TELESCOPE HAS NEVER BEEN
> EXPLAINED.

It has been "explained", in the sense that rather mundane mechanisms
that account for the known facts and suspicious omissions have been
identified.  It has not been proven, which is asking a bit much, as
there are no records.

>	     DR KARL SHUKER SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON THE FARSIGHTED
> ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DOGON PEOPLE

>     THE DOGON ARE A RECLUSIVE TRIBE OF cave and hillside-dwelling
>     farming people inhabiting a sparse, rocky plateau in [...]

About 100,000 of them.  The usual accounts make it seem like a tiny
band, easy to miss.

>     The first Western scientists to visit and study the Dogon people
>     were French anthropologists Drs Marcel Griaule and Germaine
>     Dieterlen, who initially made contact with them in 1931, and
>     continued to research them for the next three decades,
>     culminating in a detailed study conducted between 1946-1950.

They are the first known to visit the Dogon as such.  Western contact
with the Dogon goes back to at least the 19th century.

>     According to the Dogon priests, Sirius is orbited by a tiny
>     secret star that they refer to as 'po', which traces an
>     elliptical path around Sirius taking 50 years to complete.

Known since the mid-19th century.

>     Moreover, the tribe claims that po is composed of a mysterious,
>     super-dense metal called sagala which, they declare, is
>     heavier than all the iron on Earth.

Known since the 1920s.

Their beliefs include some notions from the 1920s that have since been
refuted, by the way.

>     Depictions of Sirius and its minuscule companion po occur
>     on numerous Dogon artifacts, including a statue examined by
>     Dieterlen that is at least 400 years old.  [...]

Unfortunately, one also has to be very suspicious of native artifacts.
Over the past century, "traditional African art" has been corrupted by
the Western market, to the point now where natives are quite likely to
rely on art books, museum guides, and dealer catalogues to figure out
what is "genuine".  Carbon dating is your friend.

>	[... rest ignored ...]
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)