The 'evolution of the sky': A reading from cultural astronomy

LÓPEZ, ALEJANDRO MARTÍN

Viena

Congreso; Archaeoastronomy & Cultural Astronomy WG Business Meeting and Archaeoastronomy Science Meeting, C3 History of Astronomy Meetings, XXX General Assembly International Astronomical Union; 2018

International Astronomical Union

This paper seeks to make a critical analysis of a series of proposals that discuss the " cosmonymy" and "mythical motifs" referring to the sky using statistical methods and correlations with archaeological data and population genetics (d´Huy 2013; Berezkin 2006). Based on a model of language that starts from metaphors linked to genetics and that understands it as a "culturally transmitted replicator" that evolves on a "principle of modified descent" (Pagel 2009), these analyzes use in general a binary database of "mythical motifs" compiled by Yuri Berezkin. The statistical analyzes proposed by these authors are based on a schematization of the myths and a series of assumptions about the way in which they are transmitted and modified. This kind of new "cultural diffusionism" has a very low interaction with the works and discoveries of cultural astronomy and ethnoastronomy. Therefore, our analysis seeks to make a first critical evaluation of their assumptions considering these areas of study.