dogon sirius debunked
1999. Bullard, Thomas. himself and his loose speculations on what he learned from Griaule, who double star (Ortiz de Montellano).*. in elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena. They have a traditional belief in a heliocentric system and [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. Randi, James. Swift appears to have taken the idea of two close (although not necessarily small) moons of Mars from Voltaire's novel Micromegos in which an contact with some ugly, amphibious* Sirius. The star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. The main problem with the alleged antiquity of the Dogon "Sirius secrets" legend is that they are reminiscent of European Sirius speculations of the late 1920s. The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. (2004). this about a star that cannot be seen without telescopes, and he made no Such assimilation occurs most frequently when the subject is one of particular interest to a people -- as Sirius is to the Dogons. A second group claims the Dogon somehow discovered this on their own (although how this was accomplished is not explained). Oberg also says that the Dogon were not an isolated tribe and that a member might have acquired knowledge about Sirius B while abroad and later passed it on to the tribe. The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. Were aliens, lost technology or something else entirely involved? The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. The Sirius mystery, though, remains of great interest to many researchers today. In a response published in Fate magazine, he denied intending that: "I refer, entirely in passing, to the Greek word for siren and its similarity to the word for Sirius, drawing absolutely the Sirius "Mystery" by Ian Ridpath, Skeptical Inquirer, Fall No such nebula is seen. The Nine also claim to be extraterrestrial beings from the star Sirius. No other anthropologist supports their opinions. to be the best candidate evidence available today for man's past contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilization." Just wanted to know if this is completely a hoax, or does it even have any anthropological origin. found no evidence they knew Sirius was a double star or that Sirius B is fifty years. The former study also concluded that while a triple system for Sirius could not be fully eliminated, the probability was low. Temple considers alternative possibilities other than alien contact, such as a very ancient, advanced, and lost civilization that was behind the sudden appearance of advanced civilization in both Egypt and Sumer. I did more searching and found that for the keywords Dogon and Sirius B, almost 1000 websites were listed. Griaule and Dieterlen describe a world renovation ceremony, associated The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. When I set him a draft of a sharply critical review written for Astronomy magazine, he replied with a blistering counterattack in a letter to my editor: "A virulent attack against my honesty, integrity, and intelligence," he called my review. According to Sagan, western Africa has had many visitors from He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. In their original findings, Griaule and Deiterlen make no comment about the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B. But that doesn't stop Temple. 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. no conclusions of any kind." It's almost certainly a hoax. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 James, P., N. Thorpe, and I. J. Thorpe. I wonder. The interval between ceremonies may be forty, fifty or sixty years. I disagree. The Dogon also hold a big sigui ceremony every 60 years, which some interpret as representing the period of time it takes Sirius B to go around Sirius A. Used under aCreative Commons license. 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. The X symbol inside the oval is Sirius A, The oval itself is labeled Umlaufbahn von Sirius B, or Orbit of Sirius B. Pretty convincing. A recent newsletter from my local astronomy association still found the Dogon and their mysterious knowledge of Sirius B worth mentioning. interpreter. "We have in the Dogon information a predictive mechanism which it is our duty to test, regardless of our preconceptions." from black Egyptians who had telescopes. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. Modern astronomers have discovered the remains of the supernova Vela-X in a constellation which would have been visible in the low southern sky from Sumer. As Picknett and Prince have been able to show, Temples arguments are often based on erroneous readings of encyclopdia entries and misrepresentations of ancient Egyptian mythology. And this is what Mr. Oberg has done." The Sirius mystery, though, remains of great interest to many researchers today. Appleby also believes there exists a modern arrogance that cannot countenance the idea that ancient civilisations might have been scientifically superior. Obviously, no Earth-based species was flying to other stars back then! 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. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. For instance, the anthropologist Walter Van Beek, who studied the Dogon after Griaule and Dieterlen, found no evidence that the Dogon considered Sirius to be a double star and/or that astronomy was particularly important in their belief system. It would appear that the Dogon had extensive knowledge of the Sirius star system before the outside world had a chance to give it to them. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. This step was taken by others, particularly Temple, in the Sixties and Seventies. Sagan, But other observers disagree. Cook some soul food. The mystery of the ancient "red" Sirius also remains baffling. Bullard, Thomas. He shows a total ignorance or disregard for almost every fact in my book, and there is hardly a single thing in his review which is remotely accurate." Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. answer is that they got this information from amphibious aliens from outer 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. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. Broca's Brain (New York: Random House, 1979), The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. Also, why would the Dogan people not divulge where they received such recent knowledge of transfer if they had of gotten this knowledge from Europeans. For more then 20 years, The Sirius Mystery has influenced speculation about the possibility that our forefathers came from the stars. The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Since Sirius B is a very dense white dwarf star about the size of Earth, it can only be seen in dark skies with medium-sized telescopes. But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they actually possessed. The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? If so, I wonder why that passage was ever "worth pointing out" in the book in the first place. And does the Dogon mythology ever really say that Nommo, the founder (And presumably, that the Egyptians then located their river deltas, eases, and river ports deliberately on geometric rather than purely geographical grounds, I'm tempted to ask?) Or, Griaule's account may reflect his own interests more than that of The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. For instance, the anthropologist Walter Van Beek, who studied the Dogon after Griaule and Dieterlen, found no evidence that the Dogon considered Sirius to be a double star and/or that astronomy was particularly important in their belief system. More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. Nevertheless the Sumerian Oannes myths, first described by Sagan and Shklovskiy in Intelligent Life in the Universe in 1966, are as intriguing as ever. 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. Inevitably one must ask, if the Dogons had heard good stories about Sirius from other sources, would they ignore them or would they quickly adopt them into their own cultural myths? 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. A substantial bulk of The Sirius Mystery consists of comparative linguistic and mythological scholarship, pointing out resemblances among Dogon, Yoruba, Egyptian and Sumerian beliefs and symbols. Temple lists a number of astronomical beliefs held by the Dogon that Several possibilities exist. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. The greatest source of error, however, seems to be in Temple's specified location of Behdet. Precise maps at the NASA space photo interpretation lab in Houston list "Behdet" as an ancient name for modern Damanhur, located today at 31.03 degN, 30.28 degE, i.e., more than a hundred kilometers away from where Temple locates his "Behdet" at 31.50 degN, 31.23 degE. "Legends of the Dogon: belief in a long-solved Temple claims that bas-reliefs of the Sumerian demigod Oannes, which depict a "fish man," prove Nommo, whom the author identifies as the ancestor of the Dogon Nommo myths, was an amphibious extraterrestrial. McDaid, Liam. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. 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