Patterns in the Sky by Stephen M. Fabian

An old review of a book I wrote from a site that will be closing shortly.

Ethnoastronomy is the anthropological twin of archaeoastronomy, being the study of how astronomy is practiced from an ethnographic perspective. Perhaps because of the reliance of American and Polynesian archaeoastronomy on ethno-historical records, the link between archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy is somewhat stronger than the relationship between archaeology and anthropology, at least from the British perspective. Archaeoastronomers and ethnoastronomers frequently attend the same conferences, submit papers to the same journals and many books are cross-breeds of the two disciplines. The connection is so great that the two are often connected under the term of “Cultural Astronomy”. An introduction to Ethnoastronomy should therefore be of great interest to many archaeoastronomers, particularly the archaeology undergraduates taking the archaeoastronomy module at Leicester.

Patterns in the Sky by Stephen M. Fabian could have been written with them in mind. Not only is it written for the beginner with no previous knowledge of the subject, it also has an important quality lacking in so many textbooks. It is affordable, being available for under £10, thanks to its 126 pages. Of course with such brevity a comprehensive survey of ethnoastronomical work is not possible, but Fabian makes no claims to do so. Instead he focuses tightly on the mechanics of actually practicing ethnoastronomy. This is a “how-to-do-it” guide, not a synthesis of what has been done. This approach has obviously helped the organisation of the chapters. Chapters deal with specific phenonema, so chapter two is “The Sun” and a discussion of the sun’s movement through the sky and how it can be tracked by observers. Solstices, Equinoxes, and Eclipses are all obvious choices for events. Zenith passages, Nadir passages and the midnight sun or midday night are also obvious choices to the more knowledgeable archaeoastronomer, but not to the beginner. Each of these more esoteric events is described briefly but clearly in a way that makes it essential reading for anyone aiming to understand native astronomies, ancient or modern.

The further chapters deal with the Moon, the Planets, the Stars and a chapter for “Other Celestial Phenomena”. This chapter expands the celestial sphere to include events such as comets and meteors, but also rainbows and solar and lunar haloes. This overcomes what could have been an approach based on a shopping list (Sun? got that, Moon? yes, now where did they put the planets?), and replaces it with a more culturally sensitive approach. This is amplified in the remaining two chapters “Ethnoastronomical Fieldwork”, which recaps some basic anthropological techniques in the context of Cultural Astronomy, and “Ethnoastronomy in the Context of Human Life”. This last chapter reminds us why we are bothering with these questions in the first place.

So far so good, but the value of this book can perhaps be best seen from the opening chapter, “Getting to Know the Sky: The Basics”. These days even a basic knowledge of the sky cannot be assumed among archaeology professors, and so this opening chapter is indispensable for any entry-level book. The foundations such as altitude, azimuth and declination are introduced here. Then, to help, further exercises are included at the back of this chapter, and subsequent chapters, to show the concepts in a working environment.

It is perhaps the opening of the Introduction that sets the tone for the book. Rather than a staid paragraph re-iterating the importance of the subject, Fabian instead introduces the Bororo, a people who Fabian studied in the heart of Brazil. The opening paints the scene of a tropical idyll cut off from the rest of the world, where an ancient people move in their ancient ways. An elder approaches him, and asks him something. This turns out not to be a new-age riddle of an indigenous people, but a very modern question about the moon. These vignettes appear at the beginning of each chapter, and reinforce the notion of astronomy being above all a cultural practice by placing it within a living, non-industrial, culture.

The book is well referenced throughout, and the bibliography provides a mine of works to follow for further information. As with any book these choices for citations are obviously personal choices, so while a British author might pepper his work with references to Clive Ruggles his comparative absence here, one citation with Nick Saunders, is no serious concern. More puzzling is the nonappearance of the other cultural astronomy professor at Leicester, Steve McCluskey. His work such as Calendars and Symbolism: Functions of Observation in Hopi Astronomy (1990), has helped reshape our view of the practice of astronomy.

This personal view is seen elsewhere. While the examples are drawn from environments as far apart as the arctic and the tropics they are almost always American. The need for brevity obviously limits the author’s ability to explore the world, and there would always be favourite cases lost whether they are Polish folklore, African time-keeping or Polynesian navigation, but some suggestion that there are places beyond the Americas would have been welcome. Having said that, the examples are well chosen and do the required job, so little is lost through the geographical restrictions.

These are however minor quibbles. As the title suggests, and the author re-states inside the book, this is not intended to be comprehensive or the last word on ethnoastronomy, but an introduction to its methods. In this aim, it succeeds and deserves to be read by all students of cultural astronomy.

References: McCluskey 1990 “Space, Time and the calendar in the traditional cultures of America” in Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s. ed. C Ruggles. Group D Publications. Loughborough. UK. Pp 33-44.

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