How did the Dogon Tribe in Mali know about the stars ( Sirius)before telescopes ?

Question

The Dogon are famous for their astronomical knowledge taught through oral tradition, dating back thousands of years, referencing the star system, Sirius. Sirius is the dog star. It is linked with the Egyptian goddess Isis. The astronomical information known by the Dogon since that time, was not discovered and verified until the 19th and 20th centuries,

Answer 1

read some Zechariah Sitchin books....the earth chronicles is a good series on how ancients knew many things more than just the stars...they knew, with extraordinary precision , details about the planets in our system like pluto....if you know your history...telescopes saw pluto in the 20th century and yet 5000 years ago....their writings on tablets explain that their Gods taught them.....funny how their Gods where space suits like us and used Gold dust to protect them from Solar radiation....the same as our astronauts do today...makes ya wonder

Answer 2

Skeptics of the ancient astronaut theories have stated that this could be the result of cultural contamination and misinterpretation. Often their knowledge would be vague enough to allow gaps which could be filled by researchers, using their own assumptions. Carl Sagan wrote that their knowledge seems to mirror what was known in Europe at the time. There is also the claim that Sirius has a third star which has not yet been discovered. The Dogon did say it was larger and dimmer than Sirius B, which could possibly make it a brown or red dwarf, and there is an area of orbital stability close to Sirius A. It would be interesting if this third star was discovered some day, if it exists.

Answer 3

The Dogon probably learned of the companion of Sirius from 19th century European missionaries, or possibly even later.

The bit about the knowledge being thousands of years old is just embroidery. In a pre-literate society such as the Dogons, there is little sense of the history of information; anything your grandfather told you would be considered part of a timeless tradition.

Answer 4

I don't have a reference link right now (might add it later when I have more time to do my homework), but it seems that there was no evidence that they actually knew of Sirius B prior to the visit of a certain anthropologist who first documented their strange knowledge of astronomical phenomina.

I think the final conclusion is that in his enthusiasm to work with the Dogons, the researcher was unscientific in his methods, and basically coached their answers, and drew hasty conclusions.

Imagine Regis on 'Millionaire' using obviously different tones of voice when he asks "is that your.... final answer?" if the contestants guessed wrong. They would reconsider and change their answers until his tone said "you're right."

There would be many more millionaires if he did that, which is basically a parallel of the researcher's flawed study.