David H. Kelley

Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy So Far [and Comments and Reply]

ed from different sites, concluding (MacKie

America North of Mexico

We preface the discussion of the astronomy of pre-Columbian America north of the Rio Grande by a general overview of the cultures of the region. In North America north of Mexico, there was a wide diversity of cultures matching the ecological and linguistic variation. Kroeber’s (1939) Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America defined the major areas in ways that are still largely valid, although the descriptions have been described as too generalized, ignoring changes through time and local variation within the defined areas. When first recorded, about 50 language families and several hundred languages were spoken. We will mention only three of these families: the Algonquians, spread from the St. Laurence to Virginia and west into the Rocky Mountains; the Siouans, attested in Virginia, and Ohio as well as the mouth of the Mississippi and throughout the Great Plains; and the Uto-Aztecans, spread from northern California, throughout the Great Basin, onto the Plains and south all the way to Nicaragua.

The Cult of the Serpent in the Americas: Its Asian Background [and Comments and Reply]

The origins of ophiolatry in the Western Hemisphere are obscure. It may be part of an extremely ancient, worldwide pattern of veneration of cult animals; it may have arisen independently among the Northeast Asian immigrants to the New World only after they had crossed the Bering-Chukchi land bridge between at least 15,000 and 25,000 to 45,000 years ago; or it may have been affected, if not imported, by serpent- (or dragon-) venerating societies of the Old World in relatively very recent times. Such influences could have come in the early pre- or post-Christian centuries from Indianized Asia or from China if these regions had had contacts with civilized pre-Columbian Meso- and South America as has been postulated by some diffusionists. The latter alternative is here rejected on the basis of examples which show the fundamental unity of certain features of ophidian cults among both civilized aboriginal societies and the most backward and isolated indigenes throughout the Americas. Their myths and artistic creations involving the serpent in relation to other cult animals, the sun, human and agricultural fertility, and numerology are too sharply dissimilar to Hindu-Buddhist traditions to have been influenced by them. In addition, incongruities in blood-group distribution patterns exclude the possibility of such late influences. On the other hand, these same criteria have been used with examples from archaeology and ethnography to suggest that ophiolatry is one of the very earliest of cultural imports into the Americas and that its strongest links are with northeastern Asia, particularly Siberia.

China, Korea, and Japan

Chinese archeology covers a very large area, and new information, often radically changing earlier ideas, continues to pour in. The present summary relies heavily on Chang’s (1986) general study and on his study of the Shang (1980). A million years or more of the Palaeolithic of China, with slow changes in the human physical type and the stone tools in use, provided an already well-diversified group of populations at the end of the Pleistocene. There are some microlithic cultures succeeding the Palaeolithic, but by around 6500 b.c., there were several different varieties of Neolithic culture in existence in North China, which Chang groups together in the P’ei-li-kang Culture. The people lived in round or rectangular houses with plastered floors, usually sunk somewhat below ground level. Pottery was in regular use, as were polished stone tools, including axes, hoes, and mortars and pestles. Shells were used to make blades for sickles. Underground storage chambers were used for grains. At least two species of millet seem to have been domesticated, and both dogs and pigs were also domesticated, although hunting was still an important aspect of the cultures. Bone spearheads, arrow points, and harpoons were in use. Turquoise ornaments served for decoration, and clay figurines of pigs have been found. People were buried in cemeteries.

The Migration of Folktales: Four Channels to the Americas [and Comments and Reply]

This paper attempts to draw together some of the evidences of borrowing in folktales from the Old World to the New. It abstracts in four channels, from Europe across the North Atlantic, from Africa across the South Atlantic, from Northeast Asia via the Bering Strait, and from Southeast Asia across the South Pacific. Considering both pre- and post-Columbian borrowing, it calls on both physical and cultural anthropology as witnesses to the route and relates this testimony to the recorded folktales in the Western Hemisphere, many of which still show signs of stratified borrowing as well as indigenous creativity. The theoretical frame, like the data, is pluralistic rather than monolithic or megalithic. The conclusions are not meant to be final, but merely conducive to a better perspective of the world picture and preliminary to more systematic work with new and old data and new theory.

South American Cultures

We preface the discussion of the astronomy of South American cultures by a general overview of those cultures. Humans were in South America already during the Pleistocene period. The ocean coasts and the great rivers of the Amazon drainage provided ready transport for rafts and dugout canoes. Availability of a great diversity of plants provided food, shelter, clothing, medicines, and poisons used in hunting and fishing. The technology of hunting and fishing also included atlatls, spears, clubs, blowguns, bolas, nets, fire-drives, and communal drives. The extensive knowledge of plants encouraged cultivation, and a primary emphasis on garden crops (including potatoes in the highlands, manioc and sweet potatoes in the lowlands) favored village settlements. Farming, including cotton and other fiber plants, preceded ceramics in much of South America, and there was some care and protection of trees, notably, the ceiba (for canoes), fig relatives (for bark-cloth), rubber trees (for such Amazonian inventions as syringes and rubber balls), and fruit trees. Domesticated animals included llamas, guinea pigs, and “Muscovy” ducks with dogs (ultimately of Old World origin) widespread. More than 1500 languages developed in over 70 language families, the greatest linguistic diversification of any area on Earth. This was accompanied by great variation in other aspects of culture. Warfare was endemic, varying from quick raids for trophies or loot to full-scale conquests accompanied by the displacement or enslavement of conquered populations. Head-hunting and cannibalism were normal accompaniments of warfare. High civilizations with fully urban populations and monumental architecture developed only in the Andean region, which was also the only area where metallurgy was developed. Although shamanism, with its emphasis on personal experience, was typical of the religions of South America, there were also true hierarchical priesthoods in the high culture areas. Some astronomical myths and observations seem to have been widespread, of which the most notable was the use of the Pleiades as a calendrical marker. The most comprehensive source on the native peoples of South America remains The Handbook of South American Indians of the Smithsonian Institution. A wide-ranging archeological coverage is provided by Willey (1971). The areas, archeological sites, and tribal groups that we discuss are indicated on Figure 14.1.

Observational Methods and Problems

In this chapter, we deal with the ways in which the objects described in Chapter 2 can be observed and the conditions affecting those observations.

Indo-Iranian Cultures

We know the India of today as a subcontinent containing a very large population of diverse peoples but of two principal religions: Hinduism and Islam. There are, however, many other ancient religions on the subcontinent, such as Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. India is the birthplace of Mahavira and Buddha and of the two great ancient religions that they are credited with founding—Jainism and Buddhism, respectively. Indeed, Hinduism is much more complex than can be summarized by the word religion, because it involves a synthesis of many ways of living and beliefs, with roots stretching back in time to more than two millennia before the beginning of the Christian era. Table 9.1 summarizes the Indian chronology.

Time and the Calendar

Time carries us along, willing or not, into, through, and out of the world relentlessly, without “time-out” to recover our breaths, wits, or fortunes. The perceived arrow of time points always in one direction, from the past to the possible, from the known to the unknown. This implicit nature of time is characterized in many different ways in different languages: Some recognize the past, present, and futures with conditional and subjunctive, preterite, and pluperfect nuances. On the other hand, among the Hopi, for example, the important distinction is between “near” and “far” time, whether past, present, or future. The perception of the meaning of time has changed much through history and across cultures, but the experience of time as an enslaving tyranny is common to many. Whatever its ultimate meaning or importance, the measurement of time has practical importance for many areas of human endeavor, enabling individuals and groups to coordinate their activities and thereby keep their societies functioning. This was fully recognized among ancient cultures too.

The Descent of the Gods and the Purposes of Ancient Astronomy

The central themes of archaeoastronomy are the relationships that people have seen between themselves and the heavens and the ways in which these relationships have been reflected in archeological remains. The related study of ancient astronomy needs to be integrated with all available relevant information on myths and religious practices in as clear a cultural context as possible. In many cases, myths provide a descriptive account of astronomical processes or events, related to behavioral patterns of the particular group. We have found that the purposes of ancient astronomy tend to fall in the general areas of calendrics, navigation, and astrology. In this section, we draw attention to notable similarities and differences among cultures around the world and offer some interpretations of the patterns we recognize. The major difficulties of interpretation lie in deciding what material is relevant. If we try to interpret a myth astronomically when it had no astronomical referent, we distort both the myth and our perception of the culture. If a myth has a deliberate astronomical component and we do not study it, we lose culturally important information. Similarly, we know that many cultures created structures with deliberately incorporated astronomical alignments, sometimes with a high degree of precision, and sometimes loosely. We also know that there is great variation in the degree of interest in such alignments in different cultures, and that there are a tremendous number of possible alignments.