dogon sirius debunked

The Dogon understanding of astronomy was comparatively modern but has several known misconceptions - it entirely lines up with the European understanding as of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the discovery of relativity. Its appearance in the dawn sky over Egypt warned of the impending Nile floods and the summer's heat and marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. extraterrestrial visitors? Further, "The fact that the Dogon do not talk of another planet with rings beyond Saturn [i.e., Uranus, whose rings were discovered in 1977--and the rings of Jupiter weren't discovered until after Sagan's book was written, although they would have been clearly visible to any arriving extraterrestrial spacecraft] suggests to me that their informants were European, not extraterrestrial." When Walter van Beek studied the Dogon, he Nevertheless the Sumerian Oannes myths, first described by Sagan and Shklovskiy in Intelligent Life in the Universe in 1966, are as intriguing as ever. The Dogon legend connected with Sirius, wrote Ridpath, "is riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally." Damanhur is 521.0 km from Siwa and 625.9 km from Thebes, a deviation of 20%. van Beek, Walter E. A. Such assimilation occurs most frequently when the subject is one of particular interest to a people -- as Sirius is to the Dogons. Randi, James. 1999. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. 139-167. good amount of discussion of Sirius in the scientific press in the '20s so If a European had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. So it merely remains for any interested reader to check and see which of us is correct. History Debunked then goes on to demonstrate the type of pseudo-scientific nonsense this has lead to by providing a link to an Ethnomathematics paper and reading out its conclusion. Flim-Flam! WebAlso there is the fact that they described the Nommo as fish people and you find all kinds of half man/half fish - serpent imagery all over the Mediterranean. [8][9], In 1978, astronomer Ian Ridpath observes, in an article in the Skeptical Inquirer, "The whole Dogon legend of Sirius and its companions are riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally. Greek and Arab myths and words are considered to a lesser extent. the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. I disagree wit deeee72. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. Griaule," Current Anthropology 32, 1992, pp. Read Skeptic on Apple or Android devices, or on PC or Mac via PocketMags.com. Review. This step was taken by others, particularly Temple, in the Sixties and Seventies. Moon is traveling through Cancer today. To be specific they sound like the kinds of astronomical conclusions one might draw from studying the heavens through a small portable telescope. Indeed, in view of the Dogon fixation with Sirius it would surely be more surprising if they had not grafted on to their existing legend some new astronomical information gained from Europeans. They seem to have Except that this isnt the original Dogon drawing. Our mysteries may be different but our questions are the same and we are no wiser. He certainly did not have permission to use that statement as part of the promotion, I'11 just have to be even more careful hereafter.". Try my free online Rune Readings! by Liam McDaid. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. At least three are farther and at least one of them has rings too. civilization. I certainly concur with the first of those sentences! One of the pieces of evidence Temple cites is a sand picture made by the Carl. The cartographer took all such factors into account. Subscribe to eSkeptic: our free email newsletter and get great podcasts, videos, reviews and articles from Skeptic magazine, announcements, and more in your inbox once or twice a week. Although Temple fails to prove its antiquity, the evidence for the recent acquisition of the information is still entirely circumstantial. Temple has either misinterpreted Dogon beliefs, or distorted This is the original Dogon drawing. October 1977 saw Marvin Luckermann's "More Sirius Difficulties," on ancient calendar systems and an alternate, non- extraterrestrial explanation for the ancient fascination with the number fifty (the article quotes Michael Astour's book Hellenosemitics as saying, "This exorbitant figure, very popular in Greek myths, has its explanation: it is the number of seven-day weeks in one lunar year. Cook some soul food. Sirius B was first observed in 1862, and had been predicted in 1844 on dynamic grounds. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. Temples solution referred to legends of a mythical creature, the god Oannes, who might have been an extraterrestrial, described as descending to Earth from the stars to bring civilising wisdom to the Dogon forefathers. Because Sirius B moves from 8 to 31 AU distance from Sirius A, it is unlikely that planets orbiting Sirius A would have stable orbits. It was popularized in an episode from the In Search of television series narrated by Leonard Nimoy. But it is apparent that Temple was not aware of Van Beeks devastating research. (2004). This would have wreaked havoc on the climate of any planets orbiting Sirius A. But was anything left out? (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. Some might argue that if there were a planet really close to Sirius A, it could be in a stable orbit. Y%gbsPFur[%X7Sz If Sirius B had been a red giant only a few thousand years ago, there would still be a bright and noticable planetary nebula around it today. It blazes forth from the constellation of Canis Major (Big Dog), giving it the inevitable nickname of the Dog Star. Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? Such criteria suggest that these periodic festivals have been going on for at least 600 years and possibly much longer. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 Temples The Sirius mystery, though, remains of great interest to many researchers today. answer is that they got this information from amphibious aliens from outer WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. ), Another example: "The Dogon also mention a period of rotation of Sirius- Bone yearthis MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. But Fishs map used an arbitrary viewpoint in space. Griaule, Marcel. extremely dense and has a fifty-year orbit. The third explanation is that they learned the information from Europeans or in European schools. This means that it will have a lifetime on the stellar Main Sequence, which is where stars spend 90% of their lives, of about 1.2 billion years. complete diagram that the Dogon showed to the French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who were the original With this, the Dogon mystery comes crashing down. But it is an unfortunate tendency for certain reviewers to wish to try and appear clever at the expense of accuracy, honesty, objectivity, fairness, or even decent manners, by dropping any standards at all in their headlong assaults on authors using only the tools of distortion, dishonesty, and insults. The former study also concluded that while a triple system for Sirius could not be fully eliminated, the probability was low. Strangely, ancient records explicitly list Sirius as one of six "red stars." If a European had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. Obviously, no Earth-based species was flying to other stars back then! The two anthropologists who first studied the Dogon (Griaule and Deiterlen) conducted their research in the 1930s. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. The Nine became part of the UFO and New Age mythology and many claim to be in contact with them. Seeking Clarity? Am I getting too picky here? The Dogons hold that Jupiter has four moons when in fact it has at least 12, plus a ring, as any true extraterrestrial would have known. Temple's theory is heavily based on his interpretation of the work of ethnographers Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. "It does not!" In 1998, Temple republished the book with the subtitle new scientific evidence of alien contact 5,000 years ago. The books reputation was first dented in 1999, when Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince published The Stargate Conspiracy, in which they allege that Temples thinking had been heavily influenced by his mentor, Arthur M. Young. %PDF-1.4 York: Random House, 1995). this about a star that cannot be seen without telescopes, and he made no In 1991, Van Beek led a team of anthropologists to Mali and declared that they found absolutely no trace of the detailed Sirius lore reported by the French anthropologists. The immunity of pseudoscientists to criticism is well known to skeptics, yet I was curious. It's fascinating. To quote James and Thorpe: As for Sirius B, only Griaules informants had ever heard of it. Was Griaule told by his informants what he wanted to believe; did he misinterpret the Dogon responses to his questions? of earth and transmitted in conversation. The Symbolism of the Tarot: The Minor Arcana, The Symbolism of the Tarot: The Major Arcana, My Reading with Kristine from Psychic Source Review, Get the best Psychic Reading Ever Best Psychics Ive Reviewed, The Cathars: the struggle for and of a new Church, The Strange Stone Discs of Baian-Kara-Ula, William Blake: What paintings of visions come. Its appearance in the dawn sky over Egypt warned of the impending Nile floods and the summer's heat and marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. 1995. The Dogon myths may or may not be related to these other putties (or even to Kepler's supernova, which has been seriously suggested.) Hmm, The Cardiff Giant, one of the most celebrated hoaxes in American history, on display at the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY. The assyrians called Sirius Kal-bu-sa mas (the Dog of the Sun) and in Chaldea, it was known as Kak-shisha (The Dog Star That Leads) Known History of the Dogon According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. But other observers disagree. [2][1] The book was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1976. Fishs map and Hills map look similar only because the lines connecting the stars look the same. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". The expedition, led by Henri Deslandres, stayed in the field for five weeks, and it is reasonable that during this time many contacts with the locals took place, and that relatively modern astronomical knowledge was then transferred. Though Temples work was challenged, at its core lay the original anthropological study of the Dogon by Griaule and Dieterlen, who describe the secret knowledge of Sirius B and Sirius C in their own book The Pale Fox. 68-70. ancient Egypt.*. A critical analysis has to investigate the accuracy of such claims, so as to judge the validity of the book's conclusions. Nigel Appleby whose book Hall of the Gods was withdrawn from publication has admitted to being tremendously influenced by Temples Sirius Mystery. Carl Sagan agreed with Temple that the Dogon could not have acquired companion" (Bullard). The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. Noah Brosch explained in his book Sirius Matters that cultural transfer could have taken place between 19th century French astronomers and Dogon tribe members during the observations of the solar eclipse on 16 April 1893. The other five are still seen as red but from the time of Arab astronomers to the present day Sirius has been blue-white. Ridpath asserts. History Debunked then goes on to demonstrate the type of pseudo-scientific nonsense this has lead to by providing a link to an Ethnomathematics paper and reading out its conclusion. Europeans too believed that the "white dwarf' Sirius-B star was the heaviest thing in the universe, although in later years astronomers were to find The inspiration for this claim was a star map produced by Betty Hill while under hypnosis. Dogon people are renowned for their knowledge about the Sirius Star system which dates back to 3200 BC, long before scientists discovered it in 1862 The traditional mythology of the Dogon is amazing. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. For Siwa, I called Dr. Farouk EI-Baz of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and his maps showed it at 25.50 degE, 29.22 degN (that's the oasis center, with the modern town about ten kilometers SE). Sirius. [7] Others, such as Marcel Griaule's daughter Genevive Calame-Griaule and an anthropologist, Luc de Heusch, came to criticize Van Beek's dismissal as "political" and riddled with "unchecked speculation", demonstrating a general ignorance of Dogon esoteric tradition. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. The Dogon people had been visited by European visitors many times, most notably when they hosted French astronomers looking to find a good vantage point to observe the solar eclipse of 1893. It was very unlikely that the Dogon had learned of this stars existence from Westerners prior to the visit by Griaule and Dieterlen. The diagram that Temple presents, however, is not the If a European E. "Ancient Astronauts," in The Encyclopedia of the Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. According to Sagan, western Africa has had many visitors from Temple offered another line of reasoning. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. But Sagan then finds both astronomical and mythological holes in the hypothesis. Beware of mood swings. Webplanet earth. 1978. To quote Ancient Mysteries: While Temple, following Griaule, assumes that to polo is the invisible star Sirius B, the Dogon themselves, as reported by Griaule, say something quite different. To quote the Dogon: When Digitaria (to polo) is close to Sirius, the latter becomes brighter; when it is at its most distant from Sirius, Digitaria gives off a twinkling effect, suggesting several stars to the observer. This description of a very visible effect causes James and Thorpe to wonder as anyone reading this should do whether to polo is therefore an ordinary star near Sirius, not an invisible companion, as Griaule and Temple suggest. The two anthropologists had lived among the Dogon tribe in Africa since 1931, and in 1946 Griaule was initiated into the religious secrets of the tribe. The review was indeed consequently modified in parts where Temple explained portions of his book I may have misinterpreted. Perhaps the source was Temple found no evidence they knew Sirius was a double star or that Sirius B is The Bad Archaeology page on the Sirius Mystery has summarize the basic details well: In 1976, Robert K G Temple (born 1945), an American living in the UK, published what was to become a seminal work of Bad Archaeology, The Sirius Mystery. The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. It has a mass of 2.35 times the mass of the Sun. African Observers of the Universe: The Sirius Question. In, Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. 1996. In this weeks eSkeptic, Liam McDaid examines these claims. Broca's Brain (New York: Random House, 1979), Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. either in daily life or in ritual [to the Dogon]. Some astronomers speculate that the white dwarf Sirius B might have been a flaming red giant only 2000 years ago although current astrophysical theories decree that any such transformation in less than 100,000 years is impossible. For example, he claims that the Dogon have a drawing like the one in Figure 1. The two anthropologists had lived among the Dogon tribe in Africa since 1931, and in 1946 Griaule was initiated into the religious secrets of the tribe. The obviously advanced astronomical knowledge must have come from somewhere, but is it an ancient bequest or a modern graft? terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial. It seems that Temples ideas are still popular among practitioners of pseudoarcheology, as well as with the general public. The Dogon. In that case the Dogon (and everyone else) would have had little trouble seeing both stars then. fifty years. WebThe Dogon reportedly related to Griaule and Dieterlen a belief that the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. He points out that the Dogon myths also describe a third star (astronomers would call it "Sirius C"), as yet undiscovered. It's almost certainly a hoax. Griaule and Dieterlen describe a world renovation ceremony, associated Worse still, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Sirius B was a dying red giant. ), There were Giants in the earthin those days Genesis 6:1. One example: "If a Sirius-C is ever discovered and found to be a red dwarf, I will conclude that the Dogon information has been fully validated." The diagram is only convincing as a representation of Sirius B orbiting Sirius A when most of the original symbols are eliminated. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. Temple's book and the debates that followed its release publicized the existence of the Dogon tribe among many New Age followers and proponents of ancient astronaut theories. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. to be the best candidate evidence available today for man's past contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilization." Classical mythology has been a Rorschach test into which people have projected nearly any notion that appealed to them. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. The Dogon are a people of about 100,000 who dwell in western Africa. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. The Dogons were not isolated. The oldest traces of life on Earth go back to about that time. You dont have to watch too many Fantasy Channel (formerly known as the History Channel) specials on ancient astronauts before youll be told about the primitive African Dogon of Mali and their advanced astronomical knowledge bestowed, of course, by extraterrestrials. by Liam McDaid. From the findings of Van Beek and the authors of Ancient Mysteries, it is clear that Griaule himself was responsible for the creation of a modern myth; one which, in retrospect, has created such an industry and near-religious belief that the scope and intensity of it can hardly be fathomed. One of Temple's main But didn't Isaac Asimov check over the book for just such factual errors, as the publisher claims? (Copyright: R. Ibata (Strasbourg Observatory, ULP) et al., 2MASS, NASA). Predictions are often reinterpreted to fit any outcome, which makes them scientifically worthless but which can be claimed to verify the pseudo- scientific claims. What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. of their culture, came from Sirius -- which is at the crux of Temple's reconstruction? What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. After being surprised that an astromomy association would, after all this time, bother to publish such an article, I did a web search and found that in 1997 Robert Temple published a second edition of the book that started it all TheSirius Mystery in which he addressed none of the main criticisms that had been directed against the first edition, published in 1976. Here is an example of how hard it can be to critically examine the claims in the book. WebRe: Dogon Sirius claim debunked - Graham Hancock Official Website Mysteries Taken from [ library.thinkquest.org] 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 I assumed, reasonably I.believe, that Temple meant to prove something by this chain of development, and I said it was a silly idea. The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. Figure 2. Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirius_Mystery. Speculation about the Dogon on numerous websites is now mingled with fact, leading to wide misunderstanding among the public about Dogon mythology. Have acquired companion '' ( Bullard ) and adopts Temple 's theory is heavily on. 1992, pp research in the Sixties and Seventies Observatory, ULP ) et al., 2MASS, NASA.... 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