Traditions of the Sun – Tradiciones del Sol: A multi-media resource for sharing knowledge of our nearest star through time and culture

ISABEL HAWKINS; JAMES SPADACCINI; JOSÉ HUCHIM HERRERA; GB CORNUCOPIA; ALEJANDRO MARTÍN LÓPEZ; REBECA E. HWANG

Bs.As.

Workshop; II Bienal Argentino-Checa e-Golems “La Sociedad de la Información y de la Comunicación – Tecnologías Emergentes y sus Aplicaciones al Arte y a la Sociedad”; 2007

Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio, Internacional y Culto y la Secretaría de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva de la República Argentina, con el apoyo de la Embajada Checa en Argentina y la Embajada Argentina en la República Checa

The Sun is the focus of fascinating research by scientists from NASA and other institutions who investigate the impact of our nearest star on Earth and other planets. The Sun provides heat and energy, is the cause of the seasons, and is responsible for space weather effects that influence our technology-dependent society.  From a NASA perspective, heliophysics research investigates the interaction of the solar wind and other “space weather” phenomena with the solar system. The Sun is also part of Native American traditions and sacred knowledge. The Inca believed that the Sun has the power to make things grow – and it does, providing us with the heat and energy that are essential to our survival.  Many long-resident indigenous cultures in the Americas continue to be keenly attuned to the cycles of earth and sky, and their relationship with the universe rests on a rich astronomical legacy. More than a thousand years ago, the ancient Maya in the Yucatán and the Ancestral Pueblo people in the southwestern United States recorded the motion of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon, developing calendars to measure the passage of time, marking the seasons, and predicting eclipses. The Maya and the Ancestral Pueblo people built great cities containing magnificent buildings, some of them aligned with the Sun, Moon, and stars to mark important times of the year. Their interest in understanding our relationship with the Sun and the universe beyond is a quality that is shared by humans all over the world. Our shared interest in better understanding the mysteries of the Sun forms a common bond between those who built the great structures of Chaco Canyon and the Yucatán, and people today. The “Traditions of the Sun” multi-media resource allows users to learn about knowledge of the Sun through time and culture. A website, a CD, and books written in several languages including Yucatec Maya, allow users to learn about the ancestral Native Americans in New Mexico and the ancient Maya in the Yucatán, while gaining a better understanding of research on the active Sun, and its importance to humanity. Many solar traditions are still practiced by the Maya and Pueblo people of today. “Traditions of the Sun” also provides a glimpse of their living cultures. “Traditions of the Sun” is part of a NASA-funded education and public outreach program that places solar science within cultural contexts as an effective means of capturing the interest and enabling authentic participation of diverse populations in science and technology. Through collaborative projects involving western and indigenous astronomers, we are using the “Traditions of the Sun” resource as a model for sharing knowledge of the Sun within the diverse cultural contexts of indigenous people world-wide.