scholarly journals Dawes Review 5: Australian Aboriginal Astronomy and Navigation

Author(s):  
Ray P. Norris

AbstractThe traditional cultures of Aboriginal Australians include a significant astronomical component, perpetuated through oral tradition, ceremony, and art. This astronomical knowledge includes a deep understanding of the motion of objects in the sky, which was used for practical purposes such as constructing calendars and for navigation. There is also evidence that traditional Aboriginal Australians made careful records and measurements of cyclical phenomena, recorded unexpected phenomena such as eclipses and meteorite impacts, and could determine the cardinal points to an accuracy of a few degrees. Putative explanations of celestial phenomena appear throughout the oral record, suggesting traditional Aboriginal Australians sought to understand the natural world around them, in the same way as modern scientists, but within their own cultural context. There is also a growing body of evidence for sophisticated navigational skills, including the use of astronomically based songlines. Songlines are effectively oral maps of the landscape, and are an efficient way of transmitting oral navigational skills in cultures that do not have a written language. The study of Aboriginal astronomy has had an impact extending beyond mere academic curiosity, facilitating cross-cultural understanding, demonstrating the intimate links between science and culture, and helping students to engage with science.

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 39-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray P. Norris ◽  
Duane W. Hamacher

AbstractThe traditional cultures of Aboriginal Australians include a significant astronomical component, which is usually reported in terms of songs or stories associated with stars and constellations. Here we argue that the astronomical components extend further, and include a search for meaning in the sky, beyond simply mirroring the earth-bound understanding. In particular, we have found that traditional Aboriginal cultures include a deep understanding of the motion of objects in the sky, and that this knowledge was used for practical purposes such as constructing calendars. We also present evidence that traditional Aboriginal Australians made careful records and measurements of cyclical phenomena, and paid careful attention to unexpected phenomena such as eclipses and meteorite impacts.


Author(s):  
William Schneider

The essence of this article is interviewing in cross-cultural settings. Cross-cultural interviews involve an interviewer and an interviewee who come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. They may not share common assumptions about meaning and both must work to establish understanding of what they mean by what they say. Usually, the person interviewing comes from a literate tradition and is conducting the interview to create a record that they or others will analyze and reference in their work. The person interviewed often is from a group whose primary reference is their oral tradition and narratives based on personal experience. In cross-cultural settings the interviewee or narrator is creating narrative from his or her oral tradition and personal experiences, while the interviewer is working to make a record for reference after the recording session. This article also discusses the ways of communicating in cross-cultural context. An analysis of cross-cultural interviews concludes this article.


1994 ◽  
Vol - (50) ◽  
pp. 2-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance M. McCorkle

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Tzu-Hui Chen

This narrative aims to explore the meaning and lived experiences of marriage that a unique immigrant population—“foreign brides” in Taiwan—possesses. This convergence narrative illustrates the dynamics and complexity of mail-order marriage and women's perseverance in a cross-cultural context. The relationship between marriage, race, and migration is analyzed. This narrative is comprised of and intertwined by two story lines. One is the story of two “foreign brides” in Taiwan. The other is my story about my cross-cultural relationship. All the dialogues are generated by 25 interviews of “foreign brides” in Taiwan and my personal experience.


Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 378
Author(s):  
Vincentia Tri Handayani

AbstrakFolklor yang menghasilkan tradisi lisan merupakan perwujudan budaya yang lahirdari pengalaman kelompok masyarakat. Salah satu bentuk tradisi lisan adalah ungkapan yangmengandung unsur budaya lokal dalam konstruksinya yang tidak dimiliki budaya lainnya.Ungkapan idiomatis memberikan warna pada bahasa melalui penggambaran mental. Dalambahasa Perancis, ungkapan dapat berupa locution dan expression. Perbedaan motif acuansuatu ungkapan dapat terlihat dari pengaruh budaya masyarakat pengguna bahasa. Sebuahleksem tidak selalu didefinisikan melalui unsur minimal, tidak juga melalui kata-kata,baik kata dasar atau kata kompleks, namun dapat melalui kata-kata beku yang maknanyatetap. Hubungan analogis dari makna tambahan yang ada pada suatu leksem muncul dariidentifikasi semem yang sama. Semem tersebut mengarah pada term yang diasosiasikan danyang diperkaya melalui konteks (dalam ungkapan berhubungan dengan konteks budaya).Kata kunci: folklor, ungkapan, struktur, makna idiomatis, kebudayaanAbstractFolklore which produces the oral tradition is a cultural manifestation born out theexperience of community groups. One form of the oral tradition is a phrase that containsthe elements of local culture in its construction that is not owned the other culture. Theidiomatic phrase gives the color to the language through the mental representation. InFrench, the expression can consist of locution and expression. The difference motivesreference of an expression can be seen from the influence of the cultural community thelanguage users. A lexeme is not always defined through a minimal element, nor throughwords, either basic or complex words, but can be through the frost words whose meaningsare fixed. The analogical connection of the additional meanings is on a lexeme arises fromthe identification of the same meaning. The meaning ‘semem’ leads to the associated termsand which are enriched through the context (in idiom related to the cultural context).Keywords : folklore, idioms, structure, idiom meaning, cultureI PENDAHULUAN


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Siew Hong Lam

Abstract Continuing professional development is important for improving and reforming teaching.Classroom observation of others’ teaching has been used for the professional development of eight lecturers from three Myanmar universities who visited the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore over a period of three weeks.To bridge the socio-cultural and educational background differences, Gagné’s ‘Nine events of instruction’ was used as a pedagogical framework to guide and evaluate the classroom observation and learning as it is well-established for instructional design and resonate well with educators.This study aimed to evaluate the participants’ abilities and their learning through classroom observation based on their perceptions of the ‘nine events of instruction’.The study found that most of the participants have positive views of their abilities in relation to the ‘nine events’, especially in practicing the early events of instruction. The classroom observation has benefitted them with respect to the ‘nine events’, particularly ‘Informing the Students of the Objective/Outcome’, ‘Stimulating Recall of the Prior Knowledge’ and ‘Presenting Information/Content/Stimulus’.Notably, ‘Assessing Performance’ was the most perceived ‘event of instruction’ that the participants wanted to improve on and that the participants perceived will benefit Myanmar lecturers the most.Qualitative feedbacks by the participants revealed lessons learned, their potential applicability and desires to reform and share.The study further demonstrated that the ‘nine events of instruction’ is a useful pedagogical framework for guiding and evaluating perception of abilities and learning in classroom instruction and observation for continuing professional development in a cross-cultural context.


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