Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

Some people talk about "astronomy" (the academic Western one) and "cultural astronomies" (the astronomies of "particular" cultures). This is a profound misunderstanding of the legacy of three decades of cultural astronomy studies. In this presentation we aim to discuss this confusion and to point out the contributions of cultural astronomy studies in thinking astronomical education from an intercultural perspective.
The sky and their phenomena have been an area of great interest for many cultures throughout the planet over time. In "Western culture", since the Copernican revolution, astronomy has become a model for all science. Due to the colonial expansion of the Western society their academic astronomy is taught today in the most diverse places on Earth. However, cultural astronomy has shown us that every astronomy is the result of a history and a society. “Western academic astronomy” is not "the" astronomy, and it is grounded - like all the others - on a series of implicit cultural assumptions. A truly inclusive and decolonial scientific education for our present and future world, supposes the possibility for the students and teachers of a critical appropriation of "Western academic astronomy", and the chance of putting it in dialogue with the astronomical knowledge systems of their own societies.

Watch a recording of this talk (external link)