LECTURE ONE
The first meeting deals largely with the nature of anthropology and its sub-fields. It sets up the general framework for what anthropologists do and how they do it.
Terms to be familiar with:
Anthropology: the study of humans, their ancestors and near relatives and everything they do or have done!
Archaeoastronomy: the use of astronomy in ancient cultures, and the use of astronomy to date things.
Archaeology: the study of cultures through their material remains
Archaeomagnetism or paleomagnetism: a dating technique (SEE dating) using the precession of the equinoxes and resultant shifts in the poles as a way of dating.
Artifact: something deliberately made or unmade by people (see also “ecofact”)
Astrology: a kind of divination using celestial bodies
Astronomy: the science of the heavens
Calendars: a dating technique which may or may not be an absolute techniques (SEE dating) depending on whether or not an equivalency can be found with a date in the Gregorian calendar
Carbon 14 dating (SEE Radioactive dating techniques)
Celestial Equator: An imaginary line drawn in the sky directly over the earth’s equator.
Circumpolar Stars: Those stars which never set. All the stars at the poles are circumpolar, none are at the equator.
Cultural anthropology: that part of anthropology that studies human cultures and culture in general
Cultural relativism: the idea that one needs to examine cultures on their own terms (compare moral relativism and ethnocentrism)
Culture: the pattern of life of a given society. Often a generalization from all cultures.
Dating: any of several methods used to determine how old something is. In general there is a distinction made between “relative” and “absolute” dating techniques. The first gives a date relative to something else, whereas the second produces an actual number, often with a +/- attached.
Dendrochronology: tree ring dating - an absolute dating technique (SEE Dating)
Ecofact: a naturally occurring object which may appear to be made by humans.
Ecliptic: An imaginary line in the sky drawn to indicate the path of the sun through the sky.
Equinox: Days of equal day and night – on or about March 21 (vernal equinox) and Sept. 21st (autumnal equinox). Technically, it is the point where the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator.
Ethnoastronomy: a particular cultures views of the heavens
Ethnocentrism: using ones own culture as a reference point (compare cultural relativism and moral absolutism)
Ethnosciences: “sciences” seen from the cultures point of view.
Fluorine dating: a relative dating technique (SEE dating) used to determine if two fossils have been in the same ground the same length of time.
Half life: SEE Radioactive dating
Linguistics: the study of language
Paleomagnetism: SEE archaeomagnetism
Pole Star: The star around which the other stars appear to revolve. Currently Polaris in the handle of the Little Dipper, and asterism in Ursa Major is the pole star. Previously it had been Thuban (in Draco the dragon) and it will be eventually Vega in Lyra the Lyre.
Physical anthropology: the study of human biology
Radioactive dating techniques: a method of dating using the ½ of a radioactive element. The ½ life is the amount of time it take for ½ of the radioactivity to disappear.
Revolution: movement of an object around another object
Rotation: movement of an object around its own axis
Solstice: The point or day when the sun reaches its furthest north (summer solstice in the northern hemisphere) or south (winter solstice in the northern hemisphere). They are reversed in the southern hemisphere.
Zodiac: The set of constellations through which the sun and the planets travel
LECTURE NOTES FOR LECTURE ONE
Ethno and archaeoastronomy examine the area where anthropology and astronomy intersect. To understand these terms it is necessary to understand some anthropology and some astronomy.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL INFORMATION
Anthropology deals with humans, their ancestors and near relatives (the primates). It is divided into 2 main fields – physical anthropology, dealing with the biological aspects of humans and cultural anthropology dealing with culture and cultures.
Cultural anthropology is further divided into three fields (which when added to physical make up the four fields of anthropology. These three are ethnology (cross cultural studies – e.g. religion, folklore, etc.), archaeology (the study of culture from its material remains and linguistics (the study of language). Ethnography, the writing about a specific culture, is a part of ethnology.
Ethnoscience is also a part of ethnology and involves the ways in which different peoples of the world approach those areas in the west which fall under the rubric of science. These are usually known by the same terms as the western sciences, but preceded by the term “ethno” as in “ethnozoology”, “ethnobotany”, and “ethnoastronomy”.
The terms ethno and archaeoastronomy differ largely in whether or not one collects the data through archaeological or ethnological methods. That is to say, are the people there to talk to, or do you have to deduce the information from material remains?
The terms “ethnocentrism” and “cultural relativism” are used non judgmentally in anthropology to indicate whether one’s own culture is being used as a standard (ethnocentrism) or whether the other culture is being examined in its own terms. The example we gave was in saying “Japanese don’t let you make decisions about dinner since restaurants have few offerings”. Actually, Japanese simply make the decision what to eat earlier than Americans. There is a wide variety of food available at different restaurants, so Japanese decide what to eat before getting to the restaurant rather than after they get there.
There is a question whether or not “ethnoastronomy” is an ethnocentric term or not, since it implies that all people make a distinction between atmospheric (meteorological) and non atmospheric (astronomical) phenomenon.
ASTRONOMICAL INFORMATION
There are many things which appear in the sky from clouds and lightning to stars and planets. We may distinguish two sets rather easily. There are those which, in the course of a 24 hour day move steadily from east to west, and those that do not. In the first category are the sun, moon, stars, planets and comets. In the latter are clouds, rainbows and the like. The latter are usually of short duration.
Meteors are astronomical but only become apparent in the atmosphere to the naked eye observer. Hence one might consider them members of either or both classes.
The stars are basically motionless relative to one another, while the sun moon and planets wander among the stars.
There are two kinds of motion generally discussed in astronomy – apparent and real. Apparent motion is caused by the observer moving, whereas real movement is caused by the object moving.
The sun, moon, stars, and planets move regularly each day from east to west. This is an apparent movement caused by the turning of the earth on its axis (rotation). It does this once in about 24 hours – a day.
If we watch the moon closely, however, we notice that it moves quite steadily from west to east. Over a period of a few hours one can notice the moon’s eastward motion against the background of stars. On a sequence of nights, the moon moves dramatically eastward. This is caused by the moon’s revolution about the earth and is a real movement. (The term “rotation” is used for a body turning on its own axis, while “revolution” is used for the movement of one body around another).
As a result, we distinguish between the “fixed” stars and the other heavenly bodies – sun moon and planets which “wander” (the word “planet” derives from the Greek word from “wanderer”.
The earth’s rotation on its axis causes night and day, while its revolution about the sun causes the seasons. This is caused by the fact that the earth’s axis is tilted at about 23 degrees to the plane of its orbit. Summer and winter result from sunlight falling more or less directly on the earth. In summer the light is more direct than in winter. Hence in the northern hemisphere, winter occurs while the southern hemisphere has summer.
The motion of the sky is also dependent on where one is standing. The movement of the celestial bodies at either pole is quite different from that of the same bodies at the equator. At the North Pole stars neither rise nor set. At the equator all do.
The point in the sky, to which the axis of the earth points, is called the celestial pole and is marked by the North Star, Polaris. At the North Pole, Polaris is directly overhead, whereas at the equator it is on the horizon. The height of Polaris above the Northern horizon is the same as the latitude of the observer’s position. Hence cultures near the poles have a different sky picture than those near the equator.
The sun travels in a path through the sky. This path is known as the ecliptic. If we were to extend the earth’s equator into space, it would also make an imaginary line, which the ecliptic would cross at two points. These points are the equinoxes. The extreme points on either side of the equator are the solstices.
Because the earth has a “wobble” the points where the ecliptic crosses the equator shift over time. This is called the precession of the equinoxes. The equinoxes move through the constellations over the years, each constellation being traversed in about 2,000 years making the entire cycle about 24,000 thousand years.
These shifts must be taken into account in archaeoastronomy.
ETHNO AND ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
These are similar concepts, but basically differ in how people look at the data. In ethnoastronomy data is collected by an ethnologists by talking to people and watching what they do. Archaeoastronomers generally work from the material remains of the people.
One of the biggest problems for archaeoastronomy is that much of the data deals with “symbolism”. Symbols are often referred to as “things which stand for things in a non intimate way”. The footprint of a dog is often called a “sign” because of its intimate connection with the dog, while the word “dog” is a symbol. There is no connection other than an agreed upon one. Hence the word for dog changes from culture to culture.
Ethno and archaeoastronomy often are involved with “symbolics”. Bodies may be buried facing the west. Why? Because it is where the sun, moon, stars and planets sets and there is a kind of “connection” between death and the setting of the heavenly bodies. Ancient Egyptians referred to circumpolar stars as “immortals” because they didn’t set, hence they didn’t “die”. The west side of the Nile was associated with death whereas life was associated with the rising sun.
In general there are four areas in which ethno and archaeoastronomy are involved: (a) time, calendars (b) folklore – legends and myths about the stars (c) navigation (d) construction of buildings and other edifices in alignment with some astronomical body or bodies.
It is very important to remember that in any alignment there are three points needed. The viewer, the celestial object and the object used for the alignment. For example, in order to align a particular object with a particular star (at a specific time), the viewer must be in a specific place sighting across or by the object against the star.
Since there are a huge number of celestial bodies and the viewer’s position is often not fixed, it is almost impossible not to find SOME alignment with SOMETHING. It is also very dangerous to assume that if an alignment occurs it must be “magico-religious”.
Many of the streets in Manhattan run due east-west hence anyone standing in the street on the solstice, will see the sun rise and set directly down the street. This does not make New York a sacred city!