A lunar eclipse ceremony from the Torres Strait turns our understanding of the history of science on its head.
It’s eclipse season. The Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned so it’s possible for the Earth and Moon to cast each other into shadow.
As months passed, tensions grew. Columbus’s crew threatened mutiny, while the Taíno grew frustrated with providing so much for so little in return. By February, the Taíno had reached their breaking point and stopped providing food. Mualgal man David Bosun, a talented artist and son of a Zugubau Mabaig, explains that these individuals paid careful attention to all things celestial. They kept constant watch over the stars to inform their Buai when to plant and harvest gardens, hunt and fish, travel and hold ceremonies. The final stage of Zugubau Mabaig initiation involved a rare celestial event.
We know that ancient cultures including the Chinese and Babylonians possessed the ability to predict eclipses, and it is rather difficult to do. How did the Zugubau Mabaig accomplish it? There are some things they would know. First, lunar eclipses only occur during a full moon, and solar eclipses during a new moon.
Perhaps the real situation is better captured in a short story called El Eclipse , by Honduran writer Augusto Monterroso.
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