The Barasana can explain the phenomenon too. They say that the Father of Caterpillars, by rising higher and higher in the sky at dusk, is directly responsible for the increasing numbers of earthly caterpillars. In the Barasana worldview, there exists a direct correspondence between two entities that from a Western perspective are quite distinct: the position of a constellation in the sky and the behavior of terrestrial creatures.
This is a good example of how a non-Western worldview can make sense of the cosmos by drawing direct connections between things that we would regard as quite unconnected. It is also a good example of a way of understanding the world that (at least potentially) has predictive capability: when the constellation rises, then the caterpillars will start to appear. This characteristic of Barasana cosmology, some would argue, means that we could regard it as a rudimentary form of science. However, it might also be described by others as astrology in the sense that events of earth are perceived to be determined by, or at least directly linked with, the configuration of objects in the sky.
See also:
Astrology; Cosmology; Science or Symbolism? Heliacal Rise.
References and further reading
Aveni, Anthony F., and Gary Urton, eds. Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoas
tronomy in the American Tropics, 183–201. New York: New York Acad
emy of Sciences, 1982.
Hugh-Jones, Stephen. The Palm and the Pleiades: Initiation and Cosmology in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Basque Stone Octagons
See Saroeak.
Beltany
The very name of this large stone circle in County Donegal, northwest Ireland, is of astronomical interest because it suggests an association with the Celtic calendrical festival of Beltaine, or Bealltaine, which is associated with the mid-quarter day of May 6. A conspicuous alignment at the site backs up the idea of such an association. If one stands by the tallest stone in the circle, which is on the southwestern side, then one can see on the far side a distinctive triangular stone covered with several cup marks. This stone is aligned with a point on the horizon where the sun rises on May 6. As a consequence, the cup-marked stone is often dubbed the Beltane Stone.
This combination of a 5,000-year-old astronomical alignment and a more recent mythical tradition that may have given rise to the name, and their possible linkage through Celtic calendrical festivals, is an attractive possibility. However, we cannot be sure. Several other astronomical alignments have been postulated at the circle, showing that the Beltane alignment may not be the most convincing. For example, there is a small hill summit at the relevant point on the horizon, but a much more conspicuous hill, Binnion Hill, appears just to the left, where the sun rises on about May 21. The idea of a precise Celtic calendar and its linkage back to an earlier “megalithic” calendar is also problematic in a number of ways. The Beltane alignment at Beltany may, after all, just be a coincidence.
Nonetheless, cup-marked stones do seem to be associated with astronomical alignments elsewhere—for example, at the Scottish recumbent stone circles—so the idea may not be so far-fetched that this particular springtime sunrise alignment was significant, for some reason, back in the Neolithic.
See also:
Celtic Calendar; “Megalithic” Calendar; Mid-Quarter Days. Recumbent Stone Circles; Stone Circles.
References and further reading
Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, 83–86. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Borana Calendar
The Borana are a group of nomadic cattle herders inhabiting an area that lies partly in southern Ethiopia and partly in northern Kenya. Their calendar, which regulates both subsistence and ceremonial activities, is of vital importance to them and is regulated by experts on sky observation known as ayantu. The Borana calendar is conventional in some respects. It is based upon the phase cycle of the moon, with each new month signaled by the appearance of the new, crescent moon in the evening sky. Both months and days are named, and the ayantu generally know the current month and day from memory. But if there is any uncertainty they make observations of the moon and stars. Seven months of the year are identified by a star or group of stars that rises side by side with the crescent moon when it first appears in the evening sky. The seven stars and asterisms used are Triangulum, the Pleiades, Aldebaran, Bellatrix, Orion’s belt and sword, Saiph, and Sirius. During the other half of the year, at least some of the ayantu watch to see at what phase the moon is side by side with the first star group in the list, Triangulum (although others may use different asterisms for this purpose). “Side by side” is a concept that only makes sense because the Borana live very close to the equator. This means that all celestial objects rise vertically somewhere in the eastern sector of the horizon and set vertically in the western sector. On any particular night, all the stars and asterisms that rise together continue to climb up into the sky “side by side.”
The Borana’s obsession with Triangulum is interesting in itself. It is often argued that the brightest stars and asterisms are likely to have been the most important to prehistoric peoples. Thus, people who seek stellar alignments at prehistoric monuments tend to examine the brightest stars. The Borana show that this is not necessarily the case. Triangulum is a relatively faint group of three stars, yet it is of prime importance to them.
What renders the Borana calendar highly distinctive, and confused anthropologists and archaeoastronomers for over a decade, is that day names do not start afresh with each month but progress in an endless cycle of twenty-seven names. Since the phase-cycle (synodic) month is between twenty-nine and thirty days long, two or three days appear twice in each month, once at the beginning and again at the end. The reason for this seemingly incomprehensible practice becomes clear when we consider the monthly passage of the moon through the stars. Night by night, the moon moves slowly relative to the stars, completing a circuit through the stars in 27.3 days. This is known as the sidereal month. At the equator, this means that if the moon rises on one night side by side with a certain set of stars, by the next it will have progressed and rise level with a different set. After 27 nights, it will be rising side by side once again (more or less) with the original set of stars. The Borana day is determined by the stars that the moon is level with on a given night, regardless of its phase. Twenty-seven day names suffice, with one being repeated in roughly every third cycle as observations dictate.