Beyond Paradigms in Cultural Astronomy. Proceedings of the 27th SEAC conference held together with the EAA

Proceedings of the 27th SEAC conference held together with the EAA.-- Editors: A. César González-García, Roslyn M. Frank, Lionel D. Sims, Michael A. Rappenglück, Georg Zotti, Juan A. Belmonte, Ivan Šprajc.Cultural Astronomy is the endeavour to understand the role of the sky in past and present societies, and how these societies incorporated the sky into their culture. This broad ranging discipline is closely related to archaeology when investigating material remains of the past. Cultural Astronomy also explores the role of the heavens from the perspectives of the anthropological sciences. In recent decades the discipline has been concerned with methodological and theoretical issues. This volume offers chapters based on presentations at the 27th SEAC meeting held in Bern (2019). These chapters provide a vivid image of front-line research in diverse areas, from Roman light and shadow effects to highlight power, to Maya city organization, Etruscan temple orientation or the ontology of the sky.Peer reviewe

A Newly Discovered Ethnocultural Substrate along the Atlantic Façade—Evidence for the Unique Counting System and Mathematical Strategies Shared by the Basque Country (Euskal Herria), Spain, France, Ireland and Scotland

Until now, the pre-decimal metric units of linear measure employed traditionally in the Basque Country have not been compared to similar ones documented for Celtic-speaking zones of the Atlantic façade. These base units are distinctive in that they are septenary in nature, consisting of units of seven and its multiples. In this study, the remarkable similarities that characterize these traditional linear measures are analyzed and subjected to scrutiny. The investigation also examines the mathematical strategies that were involved in laying out land holdings. The measuring devices traditionally employed are also discussed, as well as the ways in which the septenary units acted to structure sociocultural, political and administrative practices. The implications that can be drawn from the wide geographical reach of the system are explored, along with the time-depth that should be assigned to the system as a whole

SKY BEAR RESEARCH: IMPLICATIONS FOR "CULTURAL ASTRONOMY"

This chapter examines research carried out to date on the Sky Bear and seeks to demonstrate the implications of this line of research for ―cultural astronomy‖. It begins by reviewing research that has been done cross-culturally on bear ceremonialism, focusing on the role of circumpolar stars, Dipper stars and stars adjacent to them, and how they came to be integrated, cognitively, into an over-arching cosmology shared by different hunter-gatherer populations across the N. Hemisphere. Next, using three mutually reinforcing ethnographic datasets, the manner in which, specifically in Europe, this archaic worldview, characterized by embodied reciprocity, allowed humans, animals and nature to be bound together. The cosmology, grounded in the belief that humans descended from bears, integrated skyscape and landscape into a single interlocking reality. Furthermore, the worldview can be understood as embodying a ―relational epistemology‖ or ―relational ecology‖. This more culturally-informed approach coincides with the goals of ―cultural astronomy‖ as well as the methodology and goals of the emerging field of archaeological ethnography. The reasons that these particular sky resources were chosen to project this set of spirtual beliefs skyward are also addressed. In the final section I suggest that the skyscape acts a kind of mnemonic device. As such, it is a cognitive resource, readily available to the social collective in question, which can act as a repository for past beliefs. Anchoring key components of a cosmology in the stars above allows the resulting skyscape to act as an enduring ―memory bank‖. In short, the datasets analyzed facilitate the reconstruction of a European-wide ethno-cultural substrate that points to an archaic relational cosmovision and the belief that humans descended from bears as well as providing evidence for the way that skyscape and landscape were integrated into this cosmology

Bear Ceremonialism in relation to three ritual healers: the Basque salutariyua, the French marcou and the Italian maramao

Il presente lavoro prende in esame tre esempi di guaritori dotati di potere sovrannaturale. La prima sezione si concentra sulla figura del salutariyua, nei Paesi Baschi, e delle sue controparti Catalana e Valenciana, i saludadors. La seconda sezione è dedicata a un altro tipo di guaritore settimino, il francese marcous, e include anche le figure analoghe dall’altra parte della Manica, in Gran Bretagna. Successivamente, l’attenzione si sposta sul tentativo di documentare il ruolo di un altro guaritore-sciamano assai rappresentativo, un personaggio che si ritrova nell’arte performativa europea. Il lavoro si concentra specificamente sulle scene della Visita della Buona Fortuna, nelle quali un attore interviene per riportare in vita un “orso”, o un personaggio ad esso strutturalmente omologo. A questo punto, si potrà proseguire per esaminare l’enigmatica etimologia della parola italiana maramao, accumulando una serie di evidenze linguistiche ed etnografiche a supporto dell’ipotesi secondo cui tale espressione è un elemento chiave per cercare di comprendere meglio quell’antica e arcaica cosmologia che ritiene gli uomini discendenti dagli orsi.In una serie di lavori che precedono questo, l’Autrice ha esplorato i vari aspetti di questo complesso culturale, ponendo particolare importanza sulle diverse varianti fonologiche del termine Hamalau. Tale espressione, che in senso letterale significa “quattordici”, è anche il nome che viene attribuito alla figura ibrida, metà uomo e metà orso, che compare come personaggio intermediario e la cui natura duale serve a costituire un legame tra gli umani e i loro antenati orsi. Inoltre, la figura dell’Hamalau e la visione del mondo ad essa associata sembrano costituire una componente chiave in un insieme di credenze arcaiche pan-europee che considerano gli orsi come gli antenati degli esseri umani, una credenza che è sopravissuta tra i Baschi fino al xx secolo. Infine, Hamalau è anche il nome del Figlio dell’Orso, il bambino nato dall’unione di una donna con un grande orso, le cui avventure sono narrate in un vasto ciclo di racconti popolari europei