Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

TL;DR

This paper explores how Aboriginal Australian oral traditions uniquely describe the periodic brightness changes of three red-giant variable stars, revealing an ancient, indigenous astronomical knowledge overlooked by previous ethnographic studies.

Contribution

It documents the first known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in Indigenous oral traditions, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary training in ethnography and astronomy.

Findings

Aboriginal traditions describe Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Antares as variable stars.

Previous ethnographies misidentified these stars, missing their variability.

Indigenous knowledge systems contain sophisticated astronomical observations.

Abstract

Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red-giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the description of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences.