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Astronomy Across Cultures Science Across Cultures: the History of Non-Western Science

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Astronomy Across Cultures Science Across Cultures: the History of Non-Western Science 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 ix 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. ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS HELAINE SELIN (Editor) is the editor of the Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997) and Science Librarian and Faculty Associate at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In addition to editing the new series, Science Across Cultures, she has been teaching a course on the Science and History of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. SUN XIAOCHUN (Advisory Editor; Crossing the Boundaries Between Heaven and Man: Astronomy in Ancient China) received his Master's degree in Astronomy from Nanjing University and his Ph.D. in History of Astronomy from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is currently an associate professor in the CAS-Institute for the History of Natural Sciences. He held the position of Vice President of the International Society for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in East Asia from 1996 to 1999. He has published primarily on the history of Chinese astronomy, especially on star catalogues and maps. His book, The Chinese Sky during the Han, was published by Brill in 1997. His current research interests go beyond ancient Chinese astronomy into Chinese science in general and its comparison with other civilizations. JOHANNA BRODA (Mesoamerican Astronomy and the Ritual Calendar) was born in Vienna, Austria. She holds the Ph.D. in Ethnology from Vienna University. Since 1980, she has been Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas) and member of the Postgraduate Department of the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. Her research has focused on Aztec ritual and society, Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy, cosmovision and the observation of nature. She is author of numerous specialized publications on these subjects, articles as well as books. She is co-author of The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan: Center and Periphery in the Aztec World (Berkeley, 1987), co-editor of Arqueoastronomia y Etnoastronomia en Mesoamerica (Mexico, 1991) and Graniceros: Cosmovision y meteorologia indigenas de Mesoamerica (Mexico, 1997). Xlll xiv ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS NICHOLAS CAMPION (Babylonian Astrology: Its Origin and Legacy in Europe) read history at Cambridge, then pursued graduate studies in history and politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and international relations at the London School of Economics. His main research areas include the relationship between cosmology and politics, and the history of astrology, particularly its political and social uses. His major work is The Great Year: Astrology, Millenarianism and History (Penguin, 1994), a study of the relationships between astronomical ideas and theories of history. He is currently based in the Study of Religions department at Bath Spa University College, England, pursuing research into prophecy, cosmology and the New Age movement. He is the editor of Culture and Cosmos, the biannual journal on the history of astrology and cultural astronomy.
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