This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Humans have been observing the sky for thousands of years. Our ancestors were undoubtedly fascinated by it, but observing the heavens also had practical uses: It helped people measure time, both over the course of the day and through the changing seasons, and became especially important with the spread of agriculture.
What is now seen as scientific frontiers, such as cosmology and astrophysics, are in fact only the latest chapter in an evolving history of observing and interpreting the sky. This is one of the points to emerge from a recent practice insight published in the Journal of Science Communication. In the study, South African researcher Anton Binneman reflects on about 10 years of meetings with elders and knowledge holders from Indigenous communities descended from the San.
The work developed in the context of the construction of MeerKAT and the development of SKA-Mid, two telescopes in the South African Karoo, and as part of the environmental and social impact assessment required for these projects. The research highlights that Indigenous and traditional knowledge is not frozen in time, as is sometimes wrongly assumed, but continuously incorporates elements of the contemporary world, including scientific research. "She threw ashes into the sky and commanded them to become the 'Milky Way'.
She wanted a little light to be made." (From a |Xam story about the origin of the Milky Way) "Stories are not frozen in time. Language evolves, the way people relate to the sky changes, and our knowledge of the universe changes too. Indigenous narratives also evolve together with the communities that tell them," explains Anton Binneman, a specialist in engagement, communication and stakeholder management.
According to Binneman, the radio telescopes in the South African Karoo represent the latest chapter in a much longer history of observing and interpreting the sky. The traditional knowledge of San-descended communities in the area is far from static: It changes over time, incorporating new linguistic, religious and social elements and, today, scientific ones as well. The construction of the new telescopes, especially SKA-Mid, which forms part of the international SKA Observatory, required an assessment of their environmental and social impact.
As part of this process, Binneman investigated the ethnoastronomical knowledge of local communities. To understand what remained of this knowledge and how it had changed over time, workshops were organized in seven locations around the SKA site. They involved about 52 elders and knowledge holders recognized by their communities.
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