Editorial: The Philosophy of Cultural Astronomy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Editorial—Culture and Cosmos : The Marriage of Astronomy and Culture, Volume 21
2017
R commended Citatio Henty, Liz, Bernadette Brady, Darrelyn Gunzburg, Frank Prendergast, and Fabio Silva. 2017. "Editorial–Culture and Cosmos." In The Marriage of Astronomy and Culture: Theory and Method in the Study of Cultural Astronomy Papers from the 2016 SEAC Conference. Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture edited by Nicholas Campion, 1–10. Bristol: Culture and Cosmos & Sophia Centre Press. doi:10.21427/D7V23S
Skyscape Archaeology, 2019
The 25th conference of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), entitled "Beyond Paradigms", was held in Bern from 4th to 7th September, 2019. When Felipe Criado-Boado, the EAA's president, made an official proposal for a joint meeting for EAA and the European Society of Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) last year, the SEAC executive committee considered it an exceptional occasion that the society could not miss. SEAC's committee also felt that 2019 was symbolically the right time for a joint EAA and SEAC conference, as it was both the 100th anniversary of the Dyson-Eddington-Davidson experiment that first tested general relativity and the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. However, this was not the first time that there was a cultural astronomy session at an EAA conference-the first instance was actually in Bournemouth in 1999, where an archaeoastronomy roundtable was organised. There was also a cultural astronomy session at the EAA conference in 2002 in Thessaloniki. At Bern, three sessions were devoted to cultural astronomy. The first of these was Session 233, organised by Lionel Sims and Roslyn Frank, entitled "Cultural Astronomy and Ontology: How Celestial Objects and Events Have Featured in the Belief Systems and Cosmologies of Different Societies". This session invited scholarly contributions that addressed how celestial objects and events have been integrated into belief systems across the world. Twelve presentations tried to answer questions such as whether ethno-graphic analogies help to develop methods and theories of cultural astronomy, whether our concepts are sufficiently sensitive to capture and respect the details of a local cosmology or whether there is any connection between the cosmologies of the world. Michael Rappenglück offered a general presentation of archaic cosmology models, highlighting the commonality of these models. Roslyn Frank clearly demonstrated how closely cultural anthropology, ethnohistory and archaeology are related to cultural astronomy
Boutsikas et al. Advancing Cultural Astronomy
Springer, 2021
This volume contains a series of studies on cultural astronomy in honour of Clive Ruggles and his groundbreaking work in the field, written by a selection of his close colleagues. We hope that the volume is both a fitting tribute to Clive and a significant contribution to the further development of cultural astronomy as an academic discipline. On behalf of the editors, the publishers have made a donation to the Alice Ruggles Trust on publication of this book. For more information about the Alice Ruggles Trust and its work, go to alicerugglestrust.org. Contents Clive Ruggles and the Development of Cultural Astronomy
Struggling for Interdisciplinarity: Reflections of an Astrophysicist Working in Cultural Astronomy
Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 18, no 1, Spring/Summer 2014, pp.5-19, 2014
I present a personal viewòn the role of astrophysicists and astronomers doing research in cultural astronomy. First, I discuss the definition of archaeoastronomy or cultural astronomy and its controversial interdisciplinary nature. I comment about the actual curricular problem of astrophysicists working in this topic and the difficult communication between astrophysicistsas well as other natural scientistsand archaeologists or anthropologists. I highlight the importance of accuracy in determining the orientation when mapping archaeological sites. Finally, I insist on the necessity of considering the celestial sphere as a part of the context of the archaeological sites, and that archaeoastronomy should be considered as a part of landscape archaeology.
ASTRONOMY AND THE ULTIMATE CULTURE
Research on human"s attachment to cosmological phenomena at least since the Neolithic Period may prove invaluable in modern scientific understanding of our ultimate realities. Of interest has been the archaeological research about the Neolithic Magic Cosmology. In more recent periods the Greek civilization and Hindu cosmological mythology amongst others engaged in various profound intellectual ways to understand and explain the cosmos. The last two millennia saw the progress of more modern civilizations in Asia and Europe resulting in the further empowerment of philosophy, religions and of astronomy. Astronomical discoveries in recent centuries have created particularly interesting philosophical and scientific reflections on the realities of the universe. But the last few decades have evolved differing scientific concepts which have made our notions of the universe and of existence more elusive to unfold thereby digging further the gaps between philosophy, religion and science. Interestingly studies on ancient human socio-religious cultures strongly suggest that human societies have an instinctive urge to unite their material experience with religious and cosmological beliefs, that is, with supernatural phenomena. This is intriguing because our own modern scientific literature clearly shows that many of even the most eminent of scientists see a supernatural character with our universe. Philosophy and religions in their theoretical ways have produced all that can be humanly interpreted on the origin and nature of the universe and existence. Since science has the objective role to explain natural phenomena including the manner the universe originated it should eventually be able to explain what the universe and existence stand from the manner scientific research on the origin of the universe develops in the decades to come. However the final decision as to whether the universe is a natural or supernatural emanation will obviously always remain a matter of personal judgment and choice.
Unheard Voices, Part 1: The Astronomy of Many Cultures -- A Resource Guide
The teaching of astronomy in our colleges and high schools often sidesteps the contributions of cultures outside of Europe and the U.S mainstream. Few educators (formal or informal) receive much training in this area, and they therefore tend to stick to people and histories they know from their own training -- even when an increasing number of their students or audiences might be from cultures beyond those familiar to them. Luckily, a wealth of material is slowly becoming available to help celebrate the ideas and contributions of non-western cultures regarding our views of the universe. Sponsored by the Higher Education Working Group within the NASA Science Mission Directorate, this listing of resources about cultures and astronomy makes no claim to be comprehensive, but simply consists of a range of English-language materials that can be used both by educators and their students/audiences. We include formally published and web-based materials, as well as videos and classroom activi...
The role of astronomy in society and culture
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2009
As an ancient and multidisciplinary field, astronomy is an ambassador for all sciences. Astronomy's broad appeal, whether from its cultural interest of our place in the universe, or its practical aims such as sea- or space navigation, is well recorded in history from ancient to modern times, and sky-awareness, more generally, began prehistorically. Astronomy's perceived role and purpose has continually developed over the ages. In all, astronomy is not to be viewed as a narrow subject operating in isolation but one that has contributed comprehensively to the advancement of society.