Entry 2351, on 2024-06-25 at 21:25:31 (Rating 4, News)
It has been a few months since I wrote a post about Maori BS, but look back and you will see "Maori BS" and "More Maori BS", making this title "Even More Maori BS" necessary! Before I go further, I need to make two points: first, for my overseas readers, Maori are the native people of New Zealand; and second, I'm not saying everything related to Maori is BS, but there is a lot of it.
Anyway, in this case it is to do with "Maori science", or in the latest case, "Maori cosmology", especially in relation to the upcoming national holiday "Matariki" which celebrates the Maori new year.
I don't have too many issues with having a holiday based on a Maori event (their new year in this case), because there are plenty of other holidays which I don't particularly identify with, which are based on religious events irrelevant to me as an atheist. So Easter and Christmas have no deep meaning to me, although I'm still happy to take a few days off at those times. Pretty hypocritical, eh? Actually, not really, because I think the original meaning of these days has changed, and in a country where religions are only followed by the minority, they barely have a religious meaning any more.
The word "Matariki" also refers to an open cluster, usually called the Pleiades, which is in the constellation Taurus. When this cluster first becomes visible just before the Sun rises it is called a "helical rising". Many cultures (most famously the Egyptians) use this phenomenon, often with other stars, especially Sirius.
So the event Matariki (June 28 this year) happens when the cluster Matariki is first visible before sunrise (before that, its position in the sky would be too close to the Sun to be easily visible, but the Sun appears to move across the sky in comparison with the stars because of the Earth's orbit). It is also fairly close to mid-winter (June 21), which is probably why Maori used it to mark the beginning of the year.
So it all seems fairly legit so far, right? What's my problem which leads to the title of this post? Well, my problem is the material associated with Matariki has been labelled "Maori cosmology" and "Maori astronomy", and it turns out to have very little, if anything, to do with actual cosmology or astronomy. In fact it is mythology and astrology.
I've got no problem with mythology, because many myths are really fun, but why do we have to hear about them on TV and in other media, and why is it labelled as if it has some basis in reality?
Let me give you an example. Here's a description of one of the stars in the Pleiades cluster: "Matariki brings people together. Matariki is not only the name of the cluster, but also a star recognised as the mother of the group. The largest star, Matariki bonds us together, signifying a time to reflect on our health and wellbeing and nurture connections with family and friends."
And here's the reality: Alcyone, designated Eta Tauri, is a star in the constellation of Taurus. Approximately 440 light-years from the Sun, it is the brightest star in the Pleiades open cluster, which is a young cluster, around 100 million years old. There are a number of fainter stars very close to Alcyone, some of which are members of the same cluster.
Alcyone has a high rotational velocity, which causes it to have an ellipsoidal shape. Its effective radius is almost ten times that of the Sun, but the actual radius is lesser at poles and greater at the equator. Its effective temperature is approximately 12,300 K, with the actual temperature being greater at the poles and lesser at the equator. Its bolometric luminosity is 2,030 times solar.
The age of the Pleiades is typically calculated to be around 130 million years, but Alcyone itself appears to be younger, less than 100 million years. Alcyone may be a blue straggler or models may not be deriving an accurate age for stars of this type.
OK, sure, I understand that the facts might seem a bit dry compared with the mythology, but they do have the benefit of being true. It's also pretty cool to imagine a star ten times the diameter of the Sun and over 2000 times its brightness.
The advertising for the Matariki holiday on TV is being paid for by someone, and I suspect that is the taxpayer. So I'm being fed superstitious BS from another culture which I have no interest in, and I'm paying for it. On the other hand, I get no interesting information about other holidays based Western mythology, like Easter.
So yeah, I think I'm fully justified in calling this even more Maori BS!
Straight to the point of the constant bullshit, we are forced to see & listen to.
Comment 3 by OJB on 2024-06-26 at 08:56:32:
Yes, I try to keep my blog posts direct and honest. No point in toning it down too much! Again, I have to say, I have nothing against Maori or mythology in general, I just resent paying for the advertising, and I resent it being presented as science. Apart from that I'm OK with Matariki.
Comment 4 by Jim Cable on 2024-06-26 at 17:38:24:
Enjoyed your logic and reasoning. Sadly BS is completely inadequate term when attempting to describe the depth and extent of currently touted-as-substantive, Maori fulminations.
Comment 5 by OJB on 2024-06-26 at 19:23:30:
Obviously, I'm a bit more generous than you. I think "BS" is perfectly adequate!
Comment 6 by OJB on 2024-06-27 at 09:14:28:
Also had a question from a confused reader. Matariki means three things. So "Matariki" is the name of the brightest star in the cluster, also called "Matariki". And "Matariki" is the time of year when the cluster "Matariki" containing the star "Matariki" first becomes visible before the Sun rises.
A cluster is a group of young stars, close together in the sky, all formed from the same gas cloud. Over time the stars tend to drift apart. At one time in the past, our Sun was part of one.
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