The sky is routinely overlooked in Northern Dene ethnology as a meaningful domain of linguistic and cultural knowledge. However, a decade of comparative ethnological research in Alaska and Canada has shown that Dene stellar knowledge is largely tied to sacred and covert knowledge systems. In this paper, we describe an Ahtna, Gwich’in, and Sahtúot’ı̨nę constellation identified as the incarnated spirit of an ancient Traveler-Transformer figure who circled the world in Distant Time. Although this Traveler is widely known in mythology, his enigmatic transformation to the sky embodies a specialized domain of knowledge rooted in the traditional beliefs and practices of medicine people. This “Traveler” constellation is not only a world custodian and arche-type of an idealized medicine person, but it is also a teacher, ally, gamekeeper, and the embodiment of the world. We identify variations of this constellation throughout the Northern Dene region.

中文翻译：

---

作为世界观投影的北丁恩星座，包括Ahtna，Gwich'in和Sahtúot'ı̨nę的案例研究

在北丹内民族学中，天空通常被视为语言和文化知识的重要领域。然而，在阿拉斯加和加拿大进行的十年比较民族学研究表明，Dene恒星知识很大程度上与神圣和隐秘的知识系统有关。在本文中，我们描述了Ahtna，Gwich'in和Sahtúot'ı̨nę星座，这是远古时代环绕世界的旅行者-变形金刚人物的化身精神。尽管这位旅行者在神话中广为人知，但他向天空的神秘转变体现了植根于医学界传统信仰和实践的专门知识领域。这个“旅行者”星座不仅是理想化的医学世界的世界保管人和原始人，而且还是老师，盟友，游戏管理员，和世界的化身。我们确定了整个北迪内地区这一星座的变化。