Re: sacred geometry
Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Mon, 22 Sep 1997 22:41:56 -0400
Eric Watt Forste wrote:
>
> danny writes:
> > The dogon story is very popular, I've heard it in more than one place.
>
> Yes, but popularity and truth don't really seem to have very
> much correlation.
>
> Earlier you asserted that knowledge of the white dwarf Sirius B
> went back thousands of years among the Dogon. This is the part
> of your claim that I take issue with. When was it discovered
> that the Dogon had this knowledge? Who was the first non-Dogon
> to publish about this knowledge, and when? Were the Dogons a
> literate people or was knowledge of Sirius's pup transmitted in
> an oral tradition? If it was transmitted in an oral tradition,
> then what is the evidence that the knowledge is as old among
> the Dogon as claimed?
>
> These questions matter because Europeans discovered Sirius's
> pup late in the 19th century, and at the time of discovery,
> this would have been widely discussed by scientifically-curious
> literate people worldwide, not just astronomers. Knowledge of
> the white dwarf companion might have come to the Dogon at this
> time, shortly after the discovery by the Europeans, and been
> "rediscovered" among the Dogon by some cultural anthropologist
> at few decades later.
>
> I don't know whether the claim about the Dogon is true, but I
> do know what sort of information I'd need to see a lot more of
> before I'd take this claim at face value. Where do these
> claims originate in the literature? is always a good start.
>
I've seen the claims. The "datedness" of the oral tradition has
supposedly been verified by dating rock carvings depicting the minor
stellar companion beside Sirius A in the proper orientation with respect
to other stars. I forget the individuals involved in the "discovery", so
I can't lend any support to it or against, but considering the Dogon
proximity to arabic trading routes, would it be possible that early
arabic spotting scopes may have found their way into the star
worshipping Dogon Preisthood?
It's one of those oddities of history that is difficult to reconcile
with the historical "record". However, how much of real human history is
either undiscovered or known but kept off the record for political
reasons? This is not to say that it should be beleived, but possibly
that it is odd enough to warrant more study than maybe it has received
to date?
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
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mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering
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