African Cultural Astronomy : Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa
Publication year: 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4020-6639-9
Internet Resource: Please Login to download book
Astronomy is the science of studying the sky using telescopes and light collectors such as photographic plates or CCD detectors. However, people have always studied the sky and continue to study the sky without the aid of instruments this is the realm of cultural astronomy. This is the first scholarly collection of articles focused on the cultural astronomy of Africans. It weaves together astronomy, anthropology, and Africa. The volume 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.
Subject: Physics and Astronomy, Africa, Anthropology, Archaeoastronomy, CCD, Celestial mechanics, Ethnoastronomy, Science History, celestial bodies, instruments, Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Regional and Cultural Studies
