#obviously alutiiq people exist today but they have been practicing these methods for literally thousands of yrs

[doktorsung]

“As a coastal maritime people, the Alutiiq possessed an awareness of surrounding areas and a complex knowledge about ocean navigation, including methods of reading the stars, currents, tides, winds, and animal behaviors. This close awareness of their environment also included knowledge of weather and natural catastrophic event predictions, including ways to contend with their often harsh environment. They understood and perfected engineering methods that enabled them to develop tools specifically suited to their environment.”

- from Our Way: A Parallel History, edited by Julie Cajune, “History of Kodiak Alutiiq Education and Impacts on Families Today” by Alisha Drabek, page 323

Do you think that ancient people would give enough fucks about movements and nature of stars and planets if they didn't think that it would allow them to see the future?

Like it feels like before the European Naval Empires this was the only reason people cared about astronomy, and navigation was based on laws that some people described because they were certain that knowing the exact position of Mars in any moment would allow them to do better star charts

You can use the stars for things other than divination. Tracking the movements of the heavens is useful for fairly normal things like timekeeping and basic navigation on land. England did not invent navigating by the stars lol.