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[[File:Kathi (Moon) Stellarium-029.png|thumb|Lokono constellation: Kathi (Moon) in the planetarium software Stellarium (CC-BY Konrad Rybka)]] | [[File:Kathi (Moon) Stellarium-029.png|thumb|Lokono constellation: Kathi (Moon) in the planetarium software Stellarium (CC-BY Konrad Rybka)]] | ||
Kathi is an Arawakan name from Lokono. This name is referring to Moon. | Kathi is an Arawakan name from Lokono. This name is referring to Moon. | ||
Revision as of 05:32, 8 May 2026
Authors: Youla Azkarrula
_Stellarium-029.png)
Kathi is an Arawakan name from Lokono. This name is referring to Moon.
Etymology and History
Spelling Variants
- Kati (eastern Lokono)
- Kathi (western Lokono)
Origin of Constellation
The moon is known as Kathi, a term first recorded by Joannes de Laet as cattehee around 1598, and used also to refer to the lunar month.[1]
Mythology / Religion
According to the Lokono, the Moon, like the Sun, was once a man. Walter Roth reports a Lokono myth, in which a young woman was visited by a mysterious lover night after night.[2] To find out who the lover was, the woman smeared her hands with the soot from the bottom of a pot. Next day, when she woke up, she found that her brother’s face was covered in soot and realized it was him who visited her at night. Everybody in her community started to avoid the incestuous brother, who became so ashamed that he kept away from the people and ultimately ascended to the sky, becoming the Moon. This is why, according to the Lokono, the face of the moon is dirty today.
The Moon appears also in another myth. In the Lokono myth about a man stuck on an uninhabited island, another boat passes the man, but this time inside is the Moon, which decides to help the man, since people are always happy to see the Moon come out at night.[3] The Moon and Sun are also depicted as opponents. In previous times, the Lokono believed that the eclipse of the Moon is its death (kathi ôdon ‘moon dying’) and would keep watch all night.[4] The Lokono say during the eclipse of the Moon that the Moon has fallen asleep on the Sun’s path.[3] Therefore, they make a lot of noise, play drums, and blow shell trumpets to wake him up. By full moon, mothers would cover the eyes of their children so that they do not become sick.[5]
Weblinks
References
- References (general)
- ↑ Laet, Joannes de. 1633. Novus Orbis, Seu Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis Libri XVIII. Leiden: Apud Elzevirios.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 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.
- ↑ Abbenhuis, M.F. 1939. Arawakken in Suriname: Enquête-Materiaal Voor Een Volkenkundige Studie. Paramaribo: Leo Victor.
- ↑ Rybka, Konrad (online). Lokono sky culture in Stellarium, https://github.com/stellarium/stellarium , 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.
