Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings: Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa

Holbrook, Jarita; Medupe, R. Thebe; Urama, Johnson O.

This is the first scholarly collection of articles focused on the cultural astronomy of Africans. It weaves together astronomy, anthropology, and Africa and it includes African myths and legends about the sky, alignments to celestial bodies found at archaeological sites and at places of worship, rock art with celestial imagery, and scientific thinking revealed in local astronomy traditions including ethnomathematics and the creation of calendars. Authors include astronomers Kim Malville, Johnson Urama, and Thebe Medupe; archaeologist Felix Chami, and geographer Michael Bonine, and many new authors. As an emerging subfield of cultural astronomy, African cultural astronomy researchers are focused on training students specifically for doing research in Africa. The first part of the volume contains lessons and exercises to help the beginning student of African cultural astronomy. Included are exercises in archaeoastronomy, cultural anthropology, and naked-eye astronomy penned by authors who use these regularly use these methods for their research. This collection of lessons and research papers provides a foundation for the cultural astronomy researcher interested in doing work in Africa.

Details

Published by: Springer

Publication Date: 2010-11-25

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9789048176878

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-6639-9

Dimensions: 235cm x155cm

Pages: 260