cattle raising activities. The Southern Cross dictates the calendar in the Andes; it says when it is time to harvest and when it is time to start sowing.
• The ancient inhabitants of the Andes organised their territory according to the laws of the stars. One of their most important constellations was the Southern Cross. Based on it they found the measures needed to organise their lands. They did it by bringing the constellation down to Earth using“ water mirrors”( an amphora with water, which, when a star is on the zenith, reflects the starlight directly on the ground), and obtained the unit called Tupu( distance from end to end in the shortest arm), which corresponds to 20.4 meters.
• In the medicine wheel of the Quechua, the Mapuche and other native people, the four stars form a“ square cross”, which is the axis of the wheel and which can be seen clearly depicted in the drawings of the kultrún, the drum used by the machis( Mapuche healers) during their healing ceremonies. In each of the four parts the kultrun results divided, they paint suns, moons or stars on it.
• For the old inhabitants of the zone of Esquel, province of Chubut( Argentina), the Southern Cross is represented as“ the pawmarks of the Chokie or ñandú( a large bird) escaping from the bolas of the hunters”. This animal was sacred for them.
• For the Bororó( in Brazil), the Southern Cross was to be found in the paw of a large ñandú( Chokie).
• The legend of the Mocovies( Chaqueño Wood, between Paraguay and Río de la Plata) tells that the Southern Cross is part of the body of a ñandú. However, this ñandú was not completely free of danger: the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, and several other stars, depicted two threatening dogs.
• For the Mapuche and the Tobas, two people far away from each other, the Coal Sack portrayed the body of the ñandú, laying on the ground, and the paw is formed by the four stars of the Southern Cross. There are cultures that saw the ñandú in nearly the whole Milky Way.
• Farther to the South, the tribes of the Andes tell the legend of Nemec. Nemec was the chief hunter and wanted to capture a choike( ñandú). When the bird was about to be captured he escaped flying to the stars. The chief then threw the bolas using his whole strength. They did not reach the bird but stayed in the sky, near the paw of the choike, as the stars we know as Alpha and Beta Centauri. They are also known as“ the buoys of the Southern Cross” because they seem to point to the smaller mast of the cross.
• The cultures of the Ecuadorian seashore celebrate the feast of the crosses. This consist of adoration of a cross dressed as a woman and watched over during one night. Then the cross is escorted to the church where a priest blesses the“ Holy Cross”. This feast is related with archeoastronomy because it is celebrated during the time in which the Southern Cross shines at its most over this zone( likely following a tradition from their ancestors).
• The Inca also regarded the Southern Cross as very important. There are many imperial buildings related to this constellation. As their stars pointed directly to the Celestial South Pole, they needed to know it in order to determine the different times of the year( seasons, time of sowing / harvest, solstices, equinoxes, etc).
• The Bolivian people celebrate on May 3 the Cross but, in this case, they talk specifically of the feast of the Southern Cross constellation. Their ancestors venerated this constellation with the name Achakana( Southern Cross). [ 11 ]