Abstract
This research focuses on the implementation and impacts of the Gregorian Calendar on lunar-observing Indigenous communities in the Americas. I touch on major events that occurred during the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries; this temporal timeline is essential as colonial oppression has continuously impacted Indigenous populations. Many Indigenous communities observe the moon’s relation to the environment, human cycles, and the organization of time, while the Gregorian calendar focuses on Christianity/Catholicism and solar activity to determine the passing of days. This largely relates to the dismissal of lunar calendars because of their association with female menstrual cycles, the perception that the sun symbolizes masculinity, and the colonial desire to justify the “inability” of commoners to understand “complex” lunar cycles. Methods used in this research include literature reviews of secondary sources and primary accounts from Indigenous leaders and communities. I argue that the root of this oppression centers in the presumption of colonial epistemic superiority, which widely dismissed lunar calendar systems despite their accuracy. Furthermore, the Gregorian Calendar has been used as a tool for epistemic injustice, rendering lunar calendars observed by Indigenous communities as naive observations. Ultimately, the forced observation of the Gregorian Calendar disfigured Indigenous lunar culture, disconnected ecological balance with lunar cycles, and progressed colonial epistemic superiority.
Presenters
Ashley WoodStudent, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cosmology, Lunar Cycles, Epistemology, Chronology, Synchrony, Colonialism, Cultural Genocide
