Cultural Astronomy Research Articles

The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture (review)

Reviewed by: The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture Pamela Gossin (bio) The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture, edited by David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and H. Otto Sibum; pp. xii + 384. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010, $94.95, $24.95 paper, 71.00, 16.99 paper. The work of scholarly editing rarely receives adequate recognition for the fully creative intellectual contributions it makes. Too often it is assumed that the thankless tasks of [End Page 770] critically annotating a key primary text or collecting thematically or topically related essays are—or should be—their own reward. To make such an assumption in the case of this volume, however, would do an immense disservice to the extraordinary skills and insights of these editors and the overall achievement of their final product. In crafting this collection, this well-tuned team of editors never hits a sour note. The apt title serves as a recurrent aesthetic motif as well as a guiding methodological principle and deeply integrated conceptual framework throughout. The diversity of voices represented by the contributors harmoniously matches that of their nineteenth-century subject matter—the people, places, things, and ideas within and surrounding observatory life—not just within the expected contexts of Britain and America, but in Algeria, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, and Thailand. The masterful introduction provides a cogent mapping of the collection's contents in relation to its organizational framework. The substantive history-of-science-style footnotes enrich the professional utility and pedagogical value of each chapter, while the bibliography and index reflect the greater and interconnected sum of the parts. Over sixty illustrations and photographs bring to visual life a full range of principal players and their instruments, architectural spaces and settings, and the observation and graphical recording of astronomical, meteorological, and geodesic phenomena for a variety of audiences. As the introduction makes clear, one central purpose of this volume is to dismantle our conventional image of what observatories do and are; it rebuilds our conceptualization brick by brick, emphasizing the multiple roles such spaces played within science, politics, economics, and culture, not the least of which was constructing elements of the "modern western state and society" (2). Our traditional sense of what observatories observed is expanded to include not only heavenly bodies (moon, stars, planets, sun) but also more down-to-earth subjects such as weather, geography, geodesy, geomagnetism, and navigational phenomena. We also gain a more nuanced understanding of the nature of observational science itself, the problematic complexities of developing and employing precision techniques, the gathering and analysis of sensory evidence, and the difficulties of quantifying perception. In several senses, observatories functioned as "representation factor[ies]" (20), developing imaging technologies, interpreting and disseminating their findings, and contributing to and distributing powerful cosmological narratives. Across the nineteenth-century globe, observatories were part lecture hall, part theater, part political stage, demonstrating the many levels upon which the cosmos itself was "contested territory" (24). The first two essays offer intriguing complements to the relatively familiar story of how imperial power and astronomy played out at Greenwich. Simon Werrett describes how the personal enthusiasms of Emperor Nicholas I—"surveillance and spectacle" (52)—shaped the Pulkovo observatory near St. Petersburg into an apparent model of European prestige and scientific patronage that supported a show of military order and control. Massimo Mazzotti offers a complex account of how Angelo Secchi's program of physical astronomy (proto-astrophysics) at the pontifical observatory at the Collegio Romano generated a strong cosmological narrative. The program was supportive of the omnipotence and freedom of the Creator, and was, after 1870, variously appropriated into the processes and narratives of Italian national identity and nation building. The volatile dynamic between individual vision and political forces [End Page 771] also figures strongly in David Aubin's fascinating explication of eclipse politics in France and Thailand, and in Simon Schaffer's poignant morality tale of the fate of the observers and observatory at Paramatta. Another important thematic cluster—Guy Boistel on France, Sven Widmalm on Sweden, and Martina Schiavon on France and Algeria—considers the interrelation of astronomical observatory work with naval...

Closing remarks

AbstractThe purpose of this invited commentary is to present some general closing remarks on the global content of the ‘Oxford IX’ International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, taking into account how we evaluate the course archaeoastronomy has taken over the past few years. It is significant that the interdisciplinary field of archaeoastronomy has already, by common consent, changed its name into ‘astronomy in culture’ (or ‘cultural astronomy’). This happened several years ago, although it is still the case that the cultural aspect (cosmovision, or vision of the world) is not always taken sufficiently into account. The keynote presentations by Ruggles, Iwaniszewski and McCluskey addressed fundamental issues of method and theoretical concepts that should guide archaeoastronomical studies. The rest of the sessions as well as the posters were dedicated to case studies from different cultural regions of the world. This commentary synthesizes several common themes that were addressed in the many interesting papers from all over the world that were presented in the meeting. Finally I take up the proposition of Gary Urton that future efforts should be concentrated on the study of the production and maintenance of systems of knowledge in complex state societies as well as in more egalitarian rural communities. In my opinion it is an urgent task to begin discourse about the history of pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, a discipline of which the history of science and astronomy forms a fundamental part. The ‘Oxford’ International Conferences are a key forum for exchange and encounter regarding comparative studies with other ancient civilizations as well as indigenous traditions from all over the world.

Masters-level education in archaeoastronomy at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David

AbstractThe class in Archaeoastronomy at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David is taught as part of the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology, within the University's School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology. This paper will present and review some of the postgraduate work produced in the course, reporting on its findings as examples of the level of work that may be expected on a taught MA course at a UK University.

A eucalyptus in the moon: folk astronomy among European colonists in northern Santa Fe province, Argentina

AbstractIn this paper, we present a study about cultural astronomy among European colonists who settled in the northern area of the Argentinean province of Santa Fe, which is part of the southern Chaco. These colonists arrived among waves of immigration occurring in Argentina in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Ethnographic field research among these rural immigrants and their descendants revealed that a set of asterisms were distributed according to the origins of the different European communities and also according to their uses in agriculture, animal husbandry and meteorology.

<em>The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture</em>, edited by David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and H. Otto Sibum

<em>The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture</em>, edited by David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and H. Otto Sibum

Legacy documentation: using historical resources in a cultural astronomy project

AbstractLegacy documentation, the accumulated historical knowledge about an archaeological site, must be reviewed in order to locate data on the condition of archaeological features and architecture proposed to be related to astronomical observances. This type of documentation can be located in museums, research libraries, colleges or universities, national public institutions and increasingly in digitized collections available on the internet. Locating and using legacy documentation is more than a simple review of literature. It is an integral part of the process of architectural documentation. The method of architectural documentation involves detailed site proveniencing, obtaining summary data for study units, and detailed descriptions of feature conditions (Nordby et al. 2002). Case studies present the impact of legacy documentation when evaluating the original condition of astronomically associated architecture or features.

‘Bridging the gap’ through Australian cultural astronomy

AbstractFor more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

Findings Brought to Ground The Heavens on Earth Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and H. Otto Sibum, Eds. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2010. 398 pp. $94.95, £74. ISBN 9780822346289. Paper, $25.95, £17.99. ISBN 9780822346401. Science and Cultural Theory.

Through discussions of particular observatories around the globe, the contributors explore the practices, technologies, and contexts of 19th-century astronomy.

The Heavens on Earth: observatories and astronomy in nineteenth-century science and culture

The Heavens on Earth: observatories and astronomy in nineteenth-century science and culture

Book Review: A Reader in New World Astronomy, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy: A Reader with Commentary

Book Review: A Reader in New World Astronomy, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy: A Reader with Commentary

African cultural astronomy: current archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy research in Africa

African cultural astronomy: current archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy research in Africa

Lucia Dolce (ed.): The Worship of Stars in Japanese Religious Practice. (Special double issue of Culture and Cosmos: A Journal of the History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy Vol. 10, nos. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2006.) 264 pp. Bristol: Culture and Cosmos, 2007. £20. ISSN 1368 6534.

Lucia Dolce (ed.): The Worship of Stars in Japanese Religious Practice. (Special double issue of <i>Culture and Cosmos: A Journal of the History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy</i> Vol. 10, nos. 1 &amp; 2, Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2006.) 264 pp. Bristol: Culture and Cosmos, 2007. £20. ISSN 1368 6534.

Essay Review: Aveni Honoured, Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy. Studies in Honor of Anthony F. Aveni

Essay Review: Aveni Honoured, Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy. Studies in Honor of Anthony F. Aveni

Skywatching in the ancient world: new perspectives in cultural astronomy studies in honor of Anthony F. Aveni

Introduction What is a Mammal? Mammalian Distribution How to Observe Mammals Order Soricomorpha Order Chiroptera Order Primates Order Lagomorpha Order Rodentia Order Carnivore Order Artiodactyla.

The African Cultural Astronomy Project

AbstractIndigenous, endogenous, traditional, or cultural astronomy focuses on the many ways that people and cultures interact with celestial bodies. In most parts of Africa, there is very little or no awareness about modern astronomy. However, like ancient people everywhere, Africans wondered at the sky and struggled to make sense of it. The African Cultural Astronomy Project aims to unearth the body of traditional knowledge of astronomy possessed by peoples of the different ethnic groups in Africa and to consider scientific interpretations when appropriate for cosmogonies and ancient astronomical practices. Regardless of scientific validity, every scientist can relate to the process of making observations and creating theoretical mechanisms for explaining what is observed. Through linking the traditional and the scientific, it is believed that this would be used to create awareness and interest in astronomy in most parts of Africa. This paper discusses the vision, challenges and prospects of the African Cultural Astronomy Project in her quest to popularize astronomy in Africa.

Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy. Edited by Clive Ruggles and Gary Urton. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2007. Pp. xxiii, 392. Illustrations. Tables. Maps. Notes. References. Index. $65.00 cloth.

Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy. Edited by Clive Ruggles and Gary Urton. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2007. Pp. xxiii, 392. Illustrations. Tables. Maps. Notes. References. Index. $65.00 cloth.

Welcome address

It is a great pleasure for me to open the IAU-UNESCO Symposium on The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture which is taking place at the UNESCO Headquarters this week.

The role of astronomy in society and culture

AbstractAs 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.

Educational aspects of cosmology Global Cosmology Teachers Academy

AbstractThis IAU–UNESCO Symposium 260 ‘The role of Astronomy in Society and Culture’ celebrates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of modern astronomy marked by when Galileo turned a telescope to the sky making so many astounding discoveries that changed our perceived position in the solar system. This talk celebrates that cosmology has entered this era in an even deeper and profound discoveries that have changed our perception of the universe and our place in it. As such cosmology is a great interest and educational tool for capturing the attention of the young and broadening their perspective. The first portion of the talk outlines and reveals some of these observations and the second with examples and vision of how this can provide an encompassing storyline for STEM learning. This proceedings also emphasizes the key role that partnerships including the private sector are valuable, critical, and rewarding part of the effort.

Connecting Heaven and Man: The role of astronomy in ancient Chinese society and culture

AbstractThis paper reviews the history of Chinese astronomy from the perspective of the rôle it played in establishing the Heaven-Man relationship in ancient China, which was politically and morally significant, and which in turn gave Chinese astronomy its most important characteristics.