African Cultural Astronomy: Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa (Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings) PDF
Preview African Cultural Astronomy: Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa (Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings)
Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings African Cultural Astronomy Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa Jarita C. Holbrook Editor UniversityofArizona,Tucson,AZ, USA R. Thebe Medupe Editor UniversityofCape Town, Rondebosch,SouthAfrica Johnson O. Urama Editor UniversityofNigeria Nsukka, EnugaState,Nigeria Editors JaritaC.Holbrook R.ThebeMedupe UniversityofArizona UniversityofCapeTown Tucson,AZ Rondebosch USA SouthAfrica JohnsonO.Urama UniversityofNigeriaNsukka EnugaState Nigeria ISBN:978-1-4020-6638-2 e-ISBN:978-1-4020-6639-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2007936372 (cid:2)c 2008SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V. Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception ofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingentered andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Contents ChasingtheShadowoftheMoon:The2006GhanaEclipseConference... 1 JaritaC.Holbrook PartI:CulturalAstronomyResearchLessons TheUseofEthnographicMethodsinCulturalAstronomyResearch ..... 21 BarthChukwuezi ABriefOutlineontheGeographicalBackgroundofAfrica ............. 29 BasilU.Eze TheAstronomicalGnomon.......................................... 39 J.McKimMalville Naked-eyeAstronomyforCulturalAstronomers....................... 53 J.C.HolbrookandAudraBaleisis Leadership ........................................................ 77 ShawnaHolbrook IntegratingAfricanCulturalAstronomyintotheClassroom ............ 83 SanlynBuxnerandShawnaHolbrook AContemporaryApproachtoTeachingEclipses....................... 95 TimothyF.Slater Teaching CulturalAstronomy:Onthe DevelopmentandEvolution oftheSyllabusatBathSpa Universityandthe UniversityofWales, Lampeter..........................................................109 NickCampion v vi Contents PartIICurrentResearchinAfricanCulturalAstronomy EvidenceofAncientAfricanBeliefsinCelestialBodies .................121 FelixA.Chami AstronomyofNabtaPlaya ..........................................131 J.McKimMalville,RomauldSchild,FredWendorfandRobertBrenmer Romans, Astronomy andthe Qibla: Urban Formand Orientation ofIslamicCitiesofTunisia ..........................................145 M.E.Bonine TheTimbuktuAstronomyProject....................................179 RodneyThebeMedupe,Brian Warner,ShamilJeppie,SalikouSanogo, MohammedMaiga,AhmedMaiga,MamadouDembele,DrissaDiakite, Laya Tembely, Mamadou Kanoute, Sibiri Traore, Bernard Sodio andSharronHawkes The CosmologicalVisionofthe Yoruba-Ida`a`chaof BeninRepublic (WestAfrica):ALightonYorubaHistoryandCulture .................189 Aime´DafonSe`gla TheRelationshipBetweenHumanDestinyandtheCosmicForces–A StudyoftheIGBOWorldview .......................................209 BarthChukwuezi CulturalAstronomyintheLoreandLiteratureofAfrica ...............217 Damian.U.Opata AstronomyandCultureinNigeria ...................................231 J.O.Urama Participation and Research of Astronomers and Astrophysicists ofBlackAfricanDescent(1900–2005).................................239 HakeemM.OluseyiandJohnsonUrama Index .............................................................257 Contributors AudraBaleisis DrissaDiakite UniversityofArizona FacultedesSciencesetTechniques UniversitedeBamako,Mali M.E.Bonine UniversityofArizona BasilU.Eze Department of Geography and RobertBrenmer Meteorology,EnuguState 40,Kingsway,Aldwick UniversityofScienceandTechnology, WestSussexP0214DL,U.K Enugu,Nigeria SanlynBuxner UniversityofArizona SharronHawkes Dogged Films, Johannesburg, NickCampion SouthAfrica DirectoroftheSophiaCentreforthe Study Cosmology in Culture, and JaritaCHolbrook SeniorLecturerin Archaeologyand BureauofAppliedResearch Anthropology, inAnthropologyUniversityofArizona UniversityofWales,Lampeter,UK. Email:[email protected] E-mail:[email protected] FAX:+1-520-621-9608 FelixA.Chami History/ArchaeologyDepartment, ShawnaHolbrook UniversityofDaresSalam InternationalFoundationforEducation E-mail:[email protected] andSelf-Help(IFESH),Benin BarthChukwuezi ShamilJeppie AssociationofProfessor HistoryDepartment DepartmentOfSociology/ UniversityofCapeTown Anthropology,UniversityOfNigeria SouthAfrica Nsukka MamadouDembele MamadouKanoute FacultedesSciencesetTechniques FacultedesSciencesetTechniques UniversitedeBamako,Mali UniversitedeBamako,Mali vii viii Contributors AhmedMaiga TimothyF.Slater FacultedesSciencesetTechniques UniversityofArizona, UniversitedeBamako,Mali 933N.cherryAve.,Tucson, AZ85721USA, MohammedMaiga Telephone:(520)621-7096 FacultedesSciencesetTechniques Fax(520)621-1532 UniversitedeBamako,Mali BernardSodio J.McKimMalville FacultedesSciencesetTechniques UniversityofColorado UniversitedeBamako,Mali (303)492-8766 E-mail:[email protected] LayaTembely FacultedesSciencesetTechniques RodneyThebeMedupe UniversitedeBamako,Mali AstronomyDepartment UniversityofCapeTown E-mail:[email protected] SibiriTraore FacultedesSciencesetTechniques HakeemM.Oluseyi UniversitedeBamako,Mali FloridaInstituteofTechnology (321)674-7247 JohnsonUrama E-mail:holuseyi@fit.edu DepartmentofPhysics andAstronomy SalikouSanogo UniversityofNigeria,Nsukka FacultedesSciencesetTechniques UniversitedeBamako,Mali BrianWarner AstronomyDepartment RomauldSchild UniversityofCapeTown InstituteofArchaeologyandEthnology E-mail:[email protected] PolishAcademyofScience,Warsaw Aime´ DafonSe`gla FredWendorf ORKESTRAConsulting DepartmentofAnthropology 16PlacedelaMadeleine SouthernMethodistUniversity,Dallas 75008Paris Tel:0144515153/57 Damian.U.Opata Portable:0619318742 DepartmentofEnglish E-mail: a s [email protected], andLiteraryStudies, [email protected], UniversityofNigeria,Nsukka,Nigeria [email protected] E-mail:[email protected] Chasing the Shadow of the Moon: The 2006 Ghana Eclipse Conference JaritaC.Holbrook Abstract TheMarch29,2006,totalsolareclipsewasacelestialeventfortuitously passing over many of the most modern countries of West Africa: Ghana, Togo, Benin,andNigeria.ForthoseofusresearchingtheculturalastronomyofAfricans,it fitintoourdiscourse:ararecelestialeventtowhichAfricanswouldberesponding. And, we upped the ante by organizinga conference on the cultural astronomy of Africans for the week of the eclipse. This report details the process of creating the first international conference dedicated to the cultural astronomy of Africans which was also the first cultural astronomy conference to include workshops and trainingsessionsfornon-specialists.Thestrategiesforfundraising,attractingpar- ticipants, and interacting with the international media are presented. I highlight the achievements of this conference project and include a section on the lessons learned. Because of the establishment of an anthropologyinternship class for un- dergraduates;theworkshopsforundergraduates,teachers,andresearchers;andthe total solar eclipse the Ghana Eclipse Conference was a unique and also success- ful project. May our strategies serve as a blueprint for the next African cultural astronomy conference. I next give an overview of this volume of the conference proceedings and end with a discussion of research methods in African cultural astronomy. AfricanAstronomy: Pastand Present “...[H]istory inilliteratesocieties isnotdifferent from thepursuit ofthepast inliterate ones,becauseitusesarchaeological,linguistic,anthropological,andeven(fordatingpur- poses)astronomicalevidencesuchaseclipses.”[53:1] Theterm‘culturalastronomy’emergedfromtheOxfordsmeetingsinArchaeoas- tronomyinthe1980sand1990s.“AstronomiesandCultures”thetitleoftheconfer- enceproceedingsfromthethirdOxfordconferencein1990reflectsafundamental JaritaCHolbrook BureauofAppliedResearchinAnthropology,UniversityofArizona E-mail:[email protected] Fax:+1-520-621-9608 J.Holbrooketal.(eds.),AfricanCulturalAstronomy–CurrentArchaeoastronomy andEthnoastronomyResearchinAfrica.(cid:2)C SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2008 1 2 J.C.Holbrook Fig. 1 Picture taken by S. Buxner of the paper on Saturday after the eclipse. Astronomy and CultureinactioninGhana shiftinthinkingaboutastronomy:thewaythatastronomyentwinesincultureisnot universalandthatallastronomyisculturallyembedded[1].Ashiftinterminology triedtocapturethisbymovingtowards“astronomies”and“culturalastronomy”[2]. FocusingonthecontinentofAfrica,encompassingbothNorthAfricaandSouthof theSahara,terminologyneedsclarificationastowhatismeantby“Africancultural astronomy” or “African astronomy.” Neither term is meant to imply an uniform homogenous expression of astronomy Africa wide. Rather that with the term “Africanastronomy”AfricanisaplaceholderfortheAfricanethnicgroupofinterest suchasIgboastronomy,Bamanaastronomy,orSandaweastronomyorequivalently Yorubaculturalastronomy,andsoon. Culturalastronomycombinesknowledgeandmethodsfromthefieldsofastron- omy,anthropology,andhistoryinordertostudythepracticesandtraditionsoflay expertsandnon-expertswhorelate,inthebroadestsense,tothesky.Thequoteabove referenceshowhistoriansofAfricahaveusedastronomyintheirresearch:Eclipsesare usedtoaidinthedatingoforalhistories[3,4,5].Ratherthanhowastronomycanaidin thestudyofAfrica,thereistheculturalastronomystudyoftheastronomyofAfricans. Since1997,myresearchhasfocusedontheculturalastronomyofAfrica,alsoreferred
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