East is a Big Bird: Altair and the Carolinian sidereal compass Gary Holton Hawaiian, Oceanic and Global Cultural Astronomy Hilo, 16‐20 August 2015 University of Alaska Fairbanks University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Toward an interdisciplinary approach to cultural astronomy The following is a cauConary tale of the dangers of disciplinary research. For the past 35 years a false etymology has been for the Carolinian star Mailap has been propagated. Unraveling this mystery requires delving into the boundaries between the fields of astronomy and linguisCcs. Thomas Gladwin (1970) “on Puluwat the cardinal direcCon is east, under the rising of Altair, the ‘Big Bird’” (p. 148) David Lewis (1972) “The cardinal compass point and basis of the Carolinian navigaConal system is the posiCon where Altair rises in the eastward.... If an island has a bearing of 81.5° from the navigator, he will describe it as being 'under the Big Bird', the rising Altair.” (p. 64) Stephen Thomas (1987) Altair is “the cardinal direcCon, east, under Mailap, the ‘Big Bird’” (p. 83) Finney (2007) “the compass is not oriented on due east, but on rising Altair (Mailap: 'Big Bird')” (p. 160) Caroline Islands Goodenough (1953) sidereal compass Mailap ‘the big bird’ mai + lap ? + ‘main, primary, big’ maan ‘bird’ (Puw, Stw) mal ‘bird’ (Woe) < PMc *manu ‘living creature of land/air’ Another Big Bird • Mannap ‘big bird’, or simply Mal ‘bird’, spans an arc of 58 degrees across the southeastern sky (mannap = ?maliulap < maliu+lap) Mannap looking south from Yap (9°31’ N, 138°08’ E) on February 15, 2015 at 8:00 PM local Cme (UTC+10) Mannap vs. Mailap • Could Gladwin and other observers have confused these two constellaCons? • Mailap rises 26 deg to the east of Sirius, the primary star in Mannap • Mailap rises 13 hours ajer Sirius Goodenough (1953) Confusion with Aquila ‘the bird’? • Could Gladwin have based the ‘bird’ gloss on the western constellaCon Aquila? • páá ‘arm, wing’ Pááyefáng (Tarazed) Mááylap (Altair) Pááyéér (Alshain) Or a linguisCc misunderstanding? • “In a short Cme I regained the fluency in Trukese which I had acquired twenty years earlier, but the combinaCon of minor dialecCcal differences and the fact that Trukese was a second language for both me and my Puluwat informants made it more difficult to talk with some people than with others.” (Gladwin 1970:134) • “Samuel H. Elbert prepared a dicConary and syntax of the Puluwat language which among other things relieves me of the need to reproduce naCve terms and phoneCcs. Accordingly, I use only English equivalents for Puluwat terms.” (Gladwin 1970:vi) • The ‘big bird’ gloss is the “English equivalent” of Puw Mááylap Reflexes of PCk *l and *n ‘bird, living being’ ‘big, main’ ‘big bird ‘Altair’ Proto‐ Chuukic Chuuk *manú maan Puluwat Satawal maan maan Woleai maliu *lapa nap lap nap/lap lap *manú‐ lapa *maati‐ lapa mannap mallap mannap mannap Máánap Mááyláp Mainap Mailap Chk Máánap shows irregular loss of original *i with *a > áá Johnson and Mahelona (1975) • Maanap ‘the bird’ Altair • Maan ‘the bird’ Castor, Procyon, Pollux • cite Goodenough (1953), but that source has määnap Some authors more circumspect • Goodenough, from whom Gladwin draws heavily for both star names and the layout of the sidereal compass, says merely that “the meaning of the name is obscure. It is the main *maa, ….” (1953: 12 • Alkire (1970: 44) does not offer a translaCon for the star Mailap but does suggest that the companion stars Tarazed and Alshain in the constellaCon Mailap have names which translate as ‘line to the north’ and ‘line to the south’, respecCvely. • Riesenberg, who was with Gladwin in Puluwat in 1967, makes no atempt to gloss Altair in his detailed study of Puluwat navigaConal knowledge (1972). So what is *maC? • Woi mai ‘breadfruit’ < PMc *mai • Woi mmaiye ‘taut, sail into the wind’ (ojen east, i.e., toward rising Altair) < PCk *mai(a) • Woi mailap denotes a region below the umbilicus which is treated in a certain kind of tradiConal massage. In this pracCce the term mailap is used to refer to a central area of the abdomen under the umbilicus which is massaged as a part of healing. • Mortlokese mailap is both (i) an alternate term for ‘navel’; and (ii) ‘a certain form of massage’ (Odango, p.c.) • Meilap is a place name on the west coast of Pohnpei (Sohl, p.c.; Panholzer & Mauricio 2003) Why does the ‘Big Bird’ survive? • Gladwin provided an otherwise compelling and accurate descripCon of Puluwat navigaCon • The etymology was encapsulated in a catchy Ctle • ConflaCon of two important concepts – The big bird Mannap (i.e., the constellaCon centered on Sirius) – Mailap, the central point of the Carolinian sidereal compass • Linguists and astronomers don’t talk to each other Selected References Alkire, W.H. 1970. Systems of measurement on Woleai Atoll, Caroline Islands. Anthropos 65 (1/2): 1‐73. Bender, B., et al. 2003. Proto‐Micronesian ReconstrucCons. Oceanic LinguisCcs 42 (1): 1‐110, 42 (2): 271‐358. Elbert, S.H. 1972. Puluwat DicConary. Canberra: Australian NaConal University, Research School of Pacific Studies, Dept. of LinguisCcs. Finney, B.. 2007. TradiConal navigaCon. In K.R. Howe (ed.) Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors; The Discovery and Setlement of the Pacific, 156‐85. Auckland: David Bateman and Auckland Museum. Gladwin, T. 1970. East is a big bird: NavigaCon and logic on Puluwat Atoll. Harvard. Goodenough, W.H. 1953. NaCve astronomy in the Central Carolines. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Johnson, R.K & J.K. Mahelona. 1975. Nā Inoa Hōkū: A Catalogue of Hawaiian and Pacific Star Names. Honolulu: Togallant Publishing. Lewis, D. 1972. We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific, 2nd ed. Honolulu: UH Press. Panholzer, T. & R. Mauricio. 2003. Place Names of Pohnpei Island, Including And (Ant) and Pakin Atolls. Honolulu: Bess Press. Riesenberg, S.H. 1972. The organisaCon of navigaConal knowledge on Puluwat. JPS 81(1): 19‐56. Thomas, S.D. 1987. The Last Navigator. New York: Henry Holt. Acknowledgements • • • • • • • • Ali Haleyalur Calistus Hachibmai Jerry Lipka Don Rubenstein Ken Rehg Bob Blust Emmerson Odango Damian Sohl This material is based upon work supported by the NaConal Science FoundaCon under Grants No. OPP‐1203194, OPP‐1317245.