Comments like this make me want to become a lesbian. Why are some guys such asses? Sorry, off topic I know, but this is just misogynistic and unnecessary in a scientific forum. Tony should go have a drink with Larry Summers.

Benest, D. and J. L. Duvent. 1995. “Is Sirius a Triple Star?” Astronomy & Astrophysics, 299: 621–628.

^This citation alludes to two scientists who may have found evidence for Sirius C, another star to have been known to the Dogon but not documented in any European tradition up to that point. You make no allusion to this in the write-up but it is cited. Why? Also, to attribute such knowledge automatically, and with no evidence whatsoever, to European influence is ostensibly Eurocentric. The write-up also mentioned Van Beek’s weird claims, but not the rebuttal of his claims by Geneveaave Griaule and Luc De Heush, or Andrew Apter. Your write-up seeks skepticism for skepticism’s sake, it is not objective. Forget about “alien contact” or diffusion from Egypt, it is highly political which is why any notion that Dogon were as clever as other cultures and maybe, perhaps, figured these things out on their own through some unknown process, is seen as “Afrocentric”. That is beyond fallacious, offensive, and is outright bad scholarship, and Geneveave Griaule clearly shows why in her refutation of Van Beek. You’ve skipped so many points that it is obvious that this write-up is as biased as you claim New age theorists and “afrocentrists” to be, as if Eurocentrism has no part in the motivation for these claims. So easy to put people and ideas associated with people into one political box, isn’t it? Not so easy to address all of the points and empirically prove your case, now is it?

The Griaule explanation makes sense. Reminds me of some story I heard some time ago of a Central American Indian tribe that was found to revere horses–though they had not yet encountered horses. Turned out there was some old dusty record of early explorers leaving them a horse (I might be misremembering the details).

One statement even has a Dogon say that they knew the star was there because they had ‘visited’ it.

This is the new theory that is permeating the population, driven by the Pseudoscience of positive thinking,altered mental states etc. as described in The Secret and even more recently Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol.

Yes yes I know they didn’t speak or understand English before the white man came and it probably has some deep meaning to them.

But still, funny.

Helloo, Kenn?
Speaking of absurd, you're preaching to the choir here (although I truly wish the audience was indeed wider)
Sadly, we know all this stuff.
Get some humour, the better to grab a less intelligent being than you… most of them are actuality human, in spite of our sad contradictory evidence.
No offense. Just late-night imbibing ;-)
-aqk

Anyhow, the McGill lecture hall was full of (I assume) academics and other toadies, who nodded sagely at the startling revelations by this learned prof.
The lecture was about aliens and the nearby star system Zeta Crapsilon, or some such place, about 14 light-years from the solar system. (it was North-Northwest from Earth as I recall)
He dragged out all kinds of star charts, and everything except Erich Von Danigen (remember that schlockmeister?) and the kitchen sinkhole.

The audience ooo’ed and gasped. We all went home terrified, with visions of aliens shoving flashlights up our asses on some dark rural road.

Probably the Long-Dong Dogons were explained in his lecture. But I forget.
I even forgot the rest of the evening/dawn in my apartment with my girlfriend. But it was prob just like a hundred other nights. Ah, youth!

Where’s that Zeta-Crapsilon conspiratorial myth stuff now that I need it in my old age?

-aqk

That said, the Dogon idea is so absurd that it really breaks down to this: Those who believe that because of a couple sketches and the absurd coincidence that a ritual worship every 60 years mimics the time a star revolves around a companion star is evidence of a visitation from another world in a galaxy zillions of light years away … those people will never be convinced otherwise because it would be overtasking for them to review the myriad of facts that dispel such absurd beliefs. I could go into a myriad of facts, but it would make no difference … if one wants to find the face of god in a breakfast pancake and believe that the face is a vision of the divine that will bring him a million bucks, then there’s no facts available that will change that person’s mind. Some people accept facts, and some look for facts based on flimsy evidence. In this particular case, the more people who address the issue of Dogons who have seen or experienced visitors from Sirius as though it were a real issue, the greater the issue lives on … dogonnit.

Perhaps we should have added KJV to the notes?

I had multiple verses referring to giants to pick from but went with that one. Of course in the episode, as I’m sure you noticed, we didn’t talk about the Nephilim. We WOULD have talked about them but the audio for that portion broke. Sadly, I’m unable to read Hebrew – but if you get a chance to refer to the story of Goliath (the main biblical giant we talk about in the episode) perhaps you could tell me how tall he his in the Hebrew version? In the translation you linked to it says he was six cubits and a span, the same as the KJV translation.

Within the episode, Dr. Feder’s research indicates Goliath is well over ten feet tall by modern measure – a giant by most standards.

I certainly wouldn’t argue that the KJV is a better tranlsation than any other – it just happens to be the version I read the most growing up. If I remember correctly, I included the 1st Samuel (Shmuel I) verse about Goliath in my original notes but they got trimmed.

It might interest you to know that the verse about the “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” also had variant versions, though it is of much more recent origin. Both the seemingly non-sense bit of sounds and “smelling English” as well as the last part about bones and bread had several variants.

Now that we’ve discussed words a bit – what’s your take on Joshua 17:15, Joshua 21:11, and Numbers 22:30?