Interactions Between “Indigenous” and “Colonial” Astronomies: Adaptation of Indigenous Astronomies in the Modern World

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the methodological aspects of cultural astronomy in the context of the interactions between indigenous groups and colonial powers. We seek to show the importance of relationships and flows in order to understand the production of sky’s representations and practices in these contexts. Beyond this particular goal, our work aims to show that human groups generally do not work in isolation and that they are not static. That is why an approach with particular attention to the interchanges and the dynamics of interethnic contact is essential even for the study of the astronomy of groups that seem to be isolated.