Ema
Authors: ASE Tech Team
Ema is a Tupi constellation for white ostrich.
Etymology and History
Variant Spelling:
- Guira-nhandu (native)
- Nandu (English)
As with many cultures, constellations were identified and used to help keep track of the seasons and predict the seasonal variations which affect daily life. In the book by Claude d'Abbeville, Histoire de la Mission des Pères Capucins en l'Isle de Maragnan et terres circonvoisines, published in Paris, 1614, it is stated that the Tupi people identified some thirty constellations, but the book only details seven
The Tupi name for this constellation is Iandutim (Guirá Nhandu in Guarani), which literally translates to White Ostrich. The constellation depicts a large bird. In the first two weeks of June this constellation is fully visible in the Eastern sky in the evening, indicating the beginning of Winter in the South of Brazil, and the start of the dry season in the North.[1]
Mythology
IAU Working Group on Star Names
Weblinks
Reference
- ↑ Pontes (online). Tupi 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): 733.
