Download or read book Astronomy Across Cultures written by Helaine Selin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronomy Across Cultures: A History of Non-Western Astronomy consists of essays dealing with the astronomical knowledge and beliefs of cultures outside the United States and Europe. In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Polynesian, Egyptian and Tibetan astronomy, among others, the book includes essays on Sky Tales and Why We Tell Them and Astronomy and Prehistory, and Astronomy and Astrology. The essays address the connections between science and culture and relate astronomical practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay is well illustrated and contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both the history of science and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.
Download or read book Beyond Paradigms in Cultural Astronomy written by A. César González-García and published by International. This book was released on 2021-07-30 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of the SEAC 27th annual meeting held in September 2019 in Bern in confluence with the EAA annual meeting.
Download or read book African Cultural Astronomy written by Jarita Holbrook and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first scholarly collection of articles focused on the cultural astronomy of the African continent. It weaves together astronomy, anthropology, and Africa and it includes African myths and legends about the sky, alignments to celestial bodies found at archaeological sites and at places of worship, rock art with celestial imagery, and scientific thinking revealed in local astronomy traditions including ethnomathematics and the creation of calendars.
Download or read book Astronomy in Culture Cultures of Astronomy Astronomie in der Kultur Kulturen der Astronomie written by Gudrun Wolfschmidt and published by tredition. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book "Astronomy in Culture - Cultures of Astronomy" provides a cultural history of astronomy. After a keynote on the efforts to protect the dark sky as an intangible global heritage admired of all cultures under the World Heritage Convention, tangible places of astronomical heritage are described. Archaeoastronomical sites from different continents and astronomical observatories from the late Middle Ages to the 21st century are presented as cultural heritage (material culture) in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 outlines some intangible astronomical heritage of Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Astronomical observations in all cultures are the basis for time keeping and calendars all over the world. Constellations are represented as figures resembling animals or seasonal activities, and seasonal climate determines rituals and cultural festivals. Chapter 4 is devoted to some astronomical heritage presented in modern planetariums and museums representing the modern culture. A highlight is the network study of patterns stored in the planetarium software "Stellarium". Chapter 5 contains some cross-cultural comparisons involving the whole sky. Scholars from different academic backgrounds (archaeology, history of science, philology, art history, planetarium educators, computer/data science) present their studies of this traditional knowledge and how it has been transmitted and transformed over the millennia in the seven chapters of this impressive book. Dieses Buch "Astronomie in der Kultur - Kulturen der Astronomie" bietet eine Kulturgeschichte der Astronomie. Es beginnt mit den Bemühungen, den dunklen Himmel, der von allen Kulturen bewundert wird, im Rahmen der Welterbekonvention als immaterielles Erbe zu schützen. Astronomische Observatorien und archäoastronomische Stätten werden in Kapitel 2 als kulturelles Erbe (materielle Kultur) vorgestellt. Kapitel 3 bietet das immaterielle Erbe von der Antike bis zum Mittelalter. Astronomische Beobachtungen in allen Kulturen sind die Grundlage für Zeitrechnungen und Kalender auf der ganzen Welt. Sternbilder werden als Figuren dargestellt, die Tieren oder Tätigkeiten der Jahreszeiten ähneln, und das jahreszeitliche Klima bestimmt die Rituale und kulturellen Feste. Kapitel 4 ist einem Teil des astronomischen Erbes gewidmet, das in modernen Planetarien und Museen der modernen Kultur präsentiert wird. Ein Höhepunkt ist die Netzwerkstudie der Muster, die in der Planetariumssoftware "Stellarium" gespeichert sind. Kapitel 5 enthält einige kulturübergreifende Vergleiche, die den gesamten Himmel betreffen. Wissenschaftler mit unterschiedlichen akademischen Hintergründen (Archäologie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Philologie, Kunstgeschichte, Planetariumspädagogen, Informatik/Datenwissenschaft) stellen in den sieben Kapiteln dieses beeindruckenden Buches ihre Studien über dieses traditionelle Wissen und seine Übertragung und Veränderung im Laufe der Jahrtausende vor.
Download or read book Astronomy of the Inca Empire written by Steven R. Gullberg and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronomy in the Inca Empire was a robust and fundamental practice. The subsequent Spanish conquest of the Andes region disrupted much of this indigenous culture and resulted in a significant loss of information about its rich history. Through modern archaeoastronomy, this book helps recover and interpret some of these elements of Inca civilization. Astronomy was intricately woven into the very fabric of Andean existence and daily life. Accordingly, the text takes a holistic approach to its research, considering first and foremost the cultural context of each astronomy-related site. The chapters necessarily start with a history of the Incas from the beginning of their empire through the completion of the conquest by Spain before diving into an astronomical and cultural analysis of many of the huacas found in the heart of the Inca Empire. Over 300 color images—original artwork and many photos captured during the author’s extensive field research in Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, Cusco, and elsewhere—are included throughout the book, adding visual insight to a rigorous examination of Inca astronomical sites and history.
Download or read book Advancing Cultural Astronomy written by Efrosyni Boutsikas and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays on cultural astronomy celebrates the life and work of Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at Leicester University. Taking their lead from Ruggles’ work, the papers present new research focused on three core themes in cultural astronomy: methodology, case studies, and heritage. Through this framework, they show how the study of cultural astronomy has evolved over time and share new ideas to continue advancing the field. Ruggles’ work in these areas has had a profound impact on the way that scholars approach evidence of the role of sky in both ancient and modern cultures. While the papers span many time periods and regions, they are closely connected by these three major themes, presenting methodological investigations of how we can approach archaeological, textual, and ethnographic evidence; describing detailed archaeoastronomical case studies; or stressing the importance of global heritage management. This work will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in the history and development of cultural astronomy.
Download or read book Ancient Astronomy written by Clive L.N. Ruggles and published by ABC-CLIO. This book was released on 2005-10-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before astronomy was a science, humans used the stars to mark time, navigate, organize planting and dramatize myths. This encyclopaedia draws on archaeological evidence and oral traditions to reveal how prehistoric humans perceived the skies and celestial phenomena.
Download or read book Cosmic Order and Cultural Astronomy written by Rana Singh and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-10-02 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the Indian subcontinent there are territories and areas wherein culture, geography, and the archetypal cosmos interact with each other to create a sacredscape that is infused with meaning, cultural performances and transcendent power. These sacred sites possess extensive mythological associations where believed that spirit can cross between different realms. In a broad perspective such studies falls within the realm of cultural astronomy, which has two broad areas, viz. archaeoastronomy, concerned with the study of the use of astronomy and its role in ancient cultures and civilizations; and ethnoastronomy that studies the use of astronomy and its role in contemporary cultures. The seven essays in this volume deals with the critical appraisal of studying cultural astronomy and cosmic order and its implications in India, illustrated with case studies like heritagescape of Khajuraho, where stone speaks; manescape of Gaya, where manes come and bless the devotees; Deviscape of Vindhyachal, where goddess resorts; Shivascape of Kashi, where Shiva dances in making order; Shaktiscape of Kashi, that possesses the spatial ordering of goddesses; and Naturscape of Chitrakut, where mother earth blesses.
Download or read book The Power of Stars written by Bryan E. Penprase and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Completely revised and updated, this new edition provides a readable, beautifully illustrated journey through world cultures and the vibrant array of sky mythology, creation stories, models of the universe, temples and skyscrapers that each culture has created to celebrate and respond to the power of the night sky. Sections on the archaeoastronomy of South Asia and South East Asia have been expanded, with original photography and new research on temple alignments in Southern India, and new material describing the astronomical practices of Indonesia, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. Beautiful photographs of temples in India and Asia have been added, as well as new diagrams explaining the alignment of these structures and the astronomical underpinnings of temples within the Pallava and Chola cultures. From new fieldwork in the Four Corners region of North America, Dr. Penprase has included accounts of Pueblo skywatching and photographs of ceremonial kivas that help elucidate the rich astronomical knowledge of the Pueblo people. The popular “Archaeoastronomy of Skyscrapers” section of the book has been updated as well, with new interpretations of skyscrapers in Indonesia, Taiwan and China.With the rapid pace of discovery in astronomy and astrophysics, entirely new perspectives are emerging about dark matter, inflation and the future of the universe. The Power of Stars puts these discoveries in context and describes how they fit into the modern perspective of cosmology, which has arisen from the universal human response to the sky that has inspired both ancient and modern cultures.
Download or read book Heiau ina Lani written by Patrick Vinton Kirch and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-05-31 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heiau, ‘Āina, Lani is a collaborative study of 78 temple sites in the ancient moku of Kahikinui and Kaupō in southeastern Maui, undertaken using a novel approach that combines archaeology and archaeoastronomy. Although temple sites (heiau) were the primary focus of Hawaiian archaeologists in the earlier part of the twentieth century, they were later neglected as attention turned to the excavation of artifact-rich habitation sites and theoretical and methodological approaches focused more upon entire cultural landscapes. This book restores heiau to center stage. Its title, meaning “Temples, Land, and Sky,” reflects the integrated approach taken by Patrick Vinton Kirch and Clive Ruggles, based upon detailed mapping of the structures, precise determination of their orientations, and accurate dating. Heiau, ‘Āina, Lani is the outcome of a joint fieldwork project by the two authors, spanning more than fifteen years, in a remarkably well-preserved archaeological landscape containing precontact house sites, walls, and terraces for dryland cultivation, and including scores of heiau ranging from simple upright stones dedicated to Kāne, to massive platforms where the priests performed rites of human sacrifice to the war god Kū. Many of these heiau are newly discovered and reported for the first time in the book. The authors offer a fresh narrative based upon some provocative interpretations of the complex relationships between the Hawaiian temple system, the landscape, and the heavens (the “skyscape”). They demonstrate that renewed attention to heiau in the context of contemporary methodological and theoretical perspectives offers important new insights into ancient Hawaiian cosmology, ritual practices, ethnogeography, political organization, and the habitus of everyday life. Clearly, Heiau, ‘Āina, Lani repositions the study of heiau at the forefront of Hawaiian archaeology.
Download or read book Cultural Astronomy In Latin America written by Steven Gullberg and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a unique view of Astronomy in Culture, Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy involving ancient civilizations in Latin America, emphasizing scientific and cultural knowledge combined with historical, cognitive, archaeological and anthropological aspects. Topics covered in the book include different associations of ancient civilizations with the stars and planets, whether in farming, architecture, social organization, beliefs, myths, religion, metric systems, calendar construction, shrines, and variations in astronomical research methods based on the types of material evidence available. Special attention is paid to the war cycles associated with observed celestial events, day-counting calendars, including movements in the sky and written evidences from codices, and in particular the Andean and Inca traditions of astronomically associated shrines, caves and celestial alignments of monuments and temples.
Download or read book Exploring Ancient Skies written by David H. Kelley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-12-06 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring Ancient Skies brings together the methods of archaeology and the insights of modern astronomy to explore the science of astronomy as it was practiced in various cultures prior to the invention of the telescope. The book reviews an enormous and growing body of literature on the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, the Far East, and the New World (particularly Mesoamerica), putting the ancient astronomical materials into their archaeological and cultural contexts. The authors begin with an overview of the field and proceed to essential aspects of naked-eye astronomy, followed by an examination of specific cultures. The book concludes by taking into account the purposes of ancient astronomy: astrology, navigation, calendar regulation, and (not least) the understanding of our place and role in the universe. Skies are recreated to display critical events as they would have appeared to ancient observers - events such as the supernova of 1054, the 'lion horoscope' or the 'Star of Bethlehem.' Exploring Ancient Skies provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between astronomy and other areas of human investigation. It will be useful as a reference for scholars and students in both astronomy and archaeology, and will be of compelling interest to readers who seek a broad understanding of our collective intellectual history.
Download or read book The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture IAU S260 written by David Valls-Gabaud and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronomy has made enormous progress over the past decades and engages public and media interest as never before. IAU Symposium 260, held at the start of the IAU-UNESCO International Year of Astronomy 2009, addresses questions relevant to the role of astronomy in the modern world and its links to culture and society. The current volume brings together a wide range of experts and practitioners to share plans and experiences and to discuss ways in which astronomy might contribute to education, development, culture and the arts. Topics covered include: the historical framework; the social impact of astronomy; astronomy, the media and society; astronomy and the arts; public understanding of astronomy; the activities of amateur astronomers; and astronomy in the information age. This book is of value to practising scientists with an interest in the wider cultural aspects of their research, scientific policy makers and the general public.
Download or read book Cosmos Culture written by Steven J. Dick and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From GPO Bookstore's Website: Authors with diverse backgrounds in science, history, anthropology, and more, consider culture in the context of the cosmos. How does our knowledge of cosmic evolution affect terrestrial culture? Conversely, how does our knowledge of cultural evolution affect our thinking about possible cultures in the cosmos? Are life, mind, and culture of fundamental significance to the grand story of the cosmos that has generated its own self-understanding through science, rational reasoning, and mathematics? Book includes bibliographical references and an index.
Download or read book Astronomies and Cultures written by Clive L. N. Ruggles and published by Ocarina Books. This book was released on 1993 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten thematic articles illustrating the broad scope, diversity and cultural significance of contemporary studies in archaeoastronomy. Contents: The Study of Cultural Astronomy ( Clive Ruggles and Nicholas Saunders ); The Yao Dian and the Origins of Astronomy in China ( Chen Cheng-Yih and Xi Zezong ); The Riddle of Red Sirius: An Anthropological Perspective ( Roger Ceragioli ); Astronomies and Rituals at the Dawn of the Middle Ages ( Stephen McCluskey ); Folk Astronomy in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam ( David King ); Cosmos and Kings at Vijayanagara ( John McKim Malville and John Fritz ); Medicine Wheel Astronomy ( David Vogt ); Venus-Regulated Warfare and Ritual Sacrifice in Mesoamerica ( John Carlson ); Astronomical Knowledge, Calendrics, and Sacred Geography in Ancient Mesoamerica ( Johanna Broda ); The Pleiades in Comparative Perspective: The Waiwai Shirkoimo and the Shipibo Huishmabo ( Peter G. Roe ).
Download or read book Astronomy and Culture written by Edith W. Hetherington and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-20 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While astronomy is a burgeoning science, with tremendous increases in knowledge every year, it also has a tremendous past, one that has altered humanity's understanding of our place in the universe. The impact of astronomy on culture - whether through myths and stories, or through challenges to the intellectual status quo - is incalculable. This volume in the Greenwood Guides to the Universe series examines how human cultures, in all regions and time periods, have tried to make sense of the wonders of the universe. Astronomy and Culture shows students how people throughout time have struggled with the complexities apparent in the night sky, complexities that modern science has only just begun to understand.
Download or read book Echoes of the Ancient Skies written by E. C. Krupp and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular, authoritative look at the world of archaeoastronomy, the study of ancient peoples' observation of the skies and its role in their cultural evolution. 208 illustrations.
