astronomy across cultures

677 Pages·2013·30.9 MB·English

ASTRONOMY ACROSS CULTURES
SCIENCE ACROSS CULTURES:
THE HISTORY OF NON-WESTERN SCIENCE
VOLUME 1
ASTRONOMY ACROSS CULTURES
Editor:
HELAINE SELIN, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts USA
ASTRONOMY ACROSS
CULTURES
The History of Non-Western Astronomy
Editor
HELAINE SELIN
Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Advisory Editor
SUN XIAOCHUN
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-010-5820-9 ISBN 978-94-011-4179-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6
Printed on acid-free paper
All rights reserved
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000
No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owners.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
SCIENCE ACROSS CULTURES: THE HISTORY OF
NON-WESTERN SCIENCE
In 1997, Kluwer Academic Publishers published the Encyclopaedia of the
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. The
encyclopedia, a collection of almost 600 articles by almost 300 contributors,
covered a range of topics from Aztec science and Chinese medicine to Tibetan
astronomy and Indian ethnobotany. For some cultures, specific individuals
could be identified, and their biographies were included. Since the study of
non-Western science is not just a study of facts, but a study of culture and
philosophy, we included essays on subjects such as Colonialism and Science,
Magic and Science, The Transmission of Knowledge from East to West,
Technology and Culture, Science as a Western Phenomenon, Values and
Science, and Rationality, Objectivity, and Method.
Because the encyclopedia was received with critical acclaim, and because the
nature of an encyclopedia is such that articles must be concise and compact,
the editors at Kluwer and I felt that there was a need to expand on its success.
We thought that the breadth of the encyclopedia could be complemented by a
series of books that explored the topics in greater depth. We had an opportunity,
without such space limitations, to include more illustrations and much longer
bibliographies. We shifted the focus from the general educated audience that
the encyclopedia targeted to a more scholarly one, although we have been
careful to keep the articles readable and keep jargon to a minimum.
Before we can talk about the field of non-Western science, we have to define
both non-Western and science. The term non-Western is not a geographical
designation; it is a cultural one. We use it to describe people outside of the
Euro-American sphere, including the native cultures of the Americas. The
power of European and American colonialism is evident in the fact that the
majority of the world's population is defined by what they are not. And in fact,
for most of our recorded history the flow of knowledge, art, and power went
the other way. In this series, we hope to rectify the lack of scholarly attention
paid to most of the world's science.
As for defining science, if we wish to study science in non-Western cultures,
v
vi INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
we need to take several intellectual steps. First, we must accept that every
culture has a science, that is, a way of defining, controling, and predicting
events in the natural world. Then we must accept that every science is legitimate
in terms of the culture from which it grew. The transformation of the word
science as a distinct rationality valued above magic is uniquely European. It
is not common to most non-Western societies, where magic and science and
religion can easily co-exist. The empirical, scientific realm of understanding
and inquiry is not readily separable from a more abstract, religious realm.
The first two books in the series are Astronomy Across Cultures: the History
of Non-Western Astronomy, and Mathematics Across Cultures: the History of
Non-Western Mathematics. Each includes about 20 chapters. Most deal with
the topic as it is perceived by different cultures: Australian Aboriginal
Astronomy, Native American Mathematics, etc. Each book also contains a
variety of essays on related subjects, such as Astronomy and Prehistory, or
Logic and Mathematics. The next four in the series will cover Medicine, Nature
and the Environment, Chemistry and Alchemy, and Physics and Optics.
We hope the series will be used to provide both factual information about
the practices and practitioners of the sciences as well as insights into the world
views and philosophies of the cultures that produced them. We hope that
readers will achieve a new respect for the accomplishments of ancient civiliza
tions and a deeper understanding of the relationship between science and
culture.
To Annie Kuipers
editor extraordinaire
with affection and admiration
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
About the Contributors xiii
Introduction xix
Sky Tales and Why We Tell Them
E. C. Krupp
Astronomy and Prehistory
Lawrence H. Robbins 31
Astronomy and the Dreaming: The Astronomy of the Aboriginal
Australians
Roslynn D. Haynes 53
Useful and Conceptual Astronomy in Ancient Hawaii
Michael E. Chauvin 91
Ancient Astronomical Monuments in Polynesia
William Liller 127
A Polynesian Astronomical Perspective: the Maori of New Zealand
Wayne Orchiston 161
The Inca: Rulers of the Andes, Children of the Sun
David S. P. Dearborn 197
Mesoamerican Astronomy and the Ritual Calendar
Johanna Broda 225
Native American Astronomy: Traditions, Symbols, Ceremonies,
Calendars, and Ruins
Von Del Chamberlain 269
Birth and Development of Indian Astronomy
Sub hash Kak 303
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x TABLE OF CONTENTS
Remarks on the Origin of Indo-Tibetan Astronomy
Yukio Ohashi 341
Indo-Malay Astronomy
Bambang H ida yat 371
A Cultural History of Astronomy in Japan
Steven L. Renshaw and Saori Ihara 385
History of Astronomy in Korea
Park, Seong-Rae 409
Crossing the Boundaries Between Heaven and Man: Astronomy in
Ancient China
Sun X iaochun 423
Astronomical Practices in Africa South of the Sahara
Keith Snedegar 455
Astronomy in Ancient Egypt
Gregg De Young 475
Babylonian Astrology: Its Origin and Legacy in Europe
Nicholas Campion 509
Hebrew Astronomy: Deep Soundings from a Rich Tradition
Y. Tzvi Langermann 555
Mathematical Astronomy in Islamic Civilization
David A. King 585
Islamic Folk Astronomy
Daniel Martin Varisco 615
Index 651
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have had a great deal of support in the making of this book. My thanks go
to Maja de Keijzer, my reliable and dependable editor at Kluwer Academic
Publishers. I would also like to thank Alexander Schimmelpenninck, now at
Kluwer's Amsterdam branch, for easing my economic burden and making it
possible for me to buy a purple iMac. My colleagues at the Hampshire College
Library are incredibly generous; I thank them for putting up with me and for
listening to my tales. And mostly I thank Bob and Lisa and Tim, the center of
my universe.