View source for Aleti

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Aleti is an Arawakan constellation name from Lokono. This constellation is referring to torch.

== Etymology and History ==

=== Spelling Variants ===

* Alêti

=== Origin of Constellation ===
The constellation Alêti ‘Torch’ corresponds to β Centauri and represents the companion of the hunter Yokhârhin, holding a torch made from a piece of cloth dipped in beeswax known as Alêti.<ref>Brett, William Henry. 1880. Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana. London: Williams Wells Gardner.</ref><ref>Roth, Walter Edmund. 1915. An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians. Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology 30. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.</ref><ref name=":0">Goeje, Claudius Henricus de. 1942. “De Inwijding Tot Medicijnman Bij de Arawakken (Guyana) in Tekst En Mythe.” Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 101: 211–76.</ref> Alêti follows Yokhârhin so as not to scare the black curassow bird with the light of the torch. The myth reported by the Penard brothers that explains the origin of Hithikoya 'Spirit of the black curassow' includes also these two characters (see Hithikoya).<ref name=":0" /> According to the story, Hithikoya used to live on earth, but the Lokono kept tracking him down at night and shoot him. As a result, it ascended to the sky to serve as a signal for black curassows warning them about the approaching hunter (Yokhârhin) and his companion with a torch (Alêti). As Hithikoya appears higher and higher in the morning between January and March, Yokhârhin and subsequently Alêti appear on the horizon following it. This indicates to the Lokono that the black curassow can now be found high in the tress and the hunters can set out at night to hunt it in the tree tops.<ref>Rybka, Konrad (online). Lokono sky culture in Stellarium, <nowiki>https://github.com/stellarium/stellarium</nowiki> , printed in Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds., 2022), Astronomy in Culture --Cultures of Astronomy. Astronomie in der Kultur--Kulturen der Astronomie.: Featuring the Proceedings of the Splinter Meeting at the Annual Conference of the Astronomische Gesselschafb Sept. 14-16, 2021, tredition, Ahrensburg (Germany): 706-726.</ref> 

== Mythology / Religion ==

== Weblinks ==

* {{NAMESPACE}}

== References ==

* [[References]] (general)

[[Category:Asterism]] [[Category:Constellation]] [[Category:South American]] [[Category:Lokono]]