Cosmology (Anthropology)

Ecology and the art of the possible

by Marco Cuevas-Hewitt

Forthcoming. Due for publication in mid-2012. Draft available for viewing.

First paragraph: "Evocative images, wispy like memory, light up the walls of a sunless room in an old colonial... more First paragraph: "Evocative images, wispy like memory, light up the walls of a sunless room in an old colonial era mental asylum turned art gallery. In their glow, an odd array of objects: Time-worn furniture, an antique French stereoscope, a bouquet of native flowers, jars of assorted bush tucker. Binding them are the invisible threads of stories, gathered up and re-woven by artists Tessa Zettel and Karl Khoe of the Sydney-based collective, Makeshift, during their two sojourns in Esperance in the autumn and spring of 2011. The black and white projection at the focal point of the installation conveys an eighteenth century dining scene, seemingly plucked out of Europe and parachuted into the dry salt lake where it was filmed, save for the bloodroot, wattleseed, and other edible native plants comprising the spread. Adding to its curiousness is the artists’ unusual choice to film it as a tableau vivant or ‘living picture’. This now-quaint convention, once popular as a form of entertainment at the soirees of aristocratic elites, involves the presentation of a scene by a silent and motionless cast of characters as if imitating a painting or photograph. The effect achieved by Makeshift is a film reel resembling a slideshow of images from the colonial frontier, eerily still but for the tablecloth flapping in the breeze..."

Toward a Critique of Paideia and Humanitas: (Mis)Education and the Global Ecological Crisis

by Richard Kahn

Education in the Era of Globalization, Ilan Gur Ze’ev and Klas  Roth (eds.), Springer

Un ciel de fer et de bronze

by Florent Mathias

Publié dans 'les Cahiers de Science et Vie' n°129 (mai 2012), pp. 27-31)

La question de l'existence d'une forme d'astronomie antérieure aux périodes historiques en Europe occidentale a... more La question de l'existence d'une forme d'astronomie antérieure aux périodes historiques en Europe occidentale a longtemps divisé archéologues et astronomes. Le sujet a malheureusement fait l'objet de nombreuses récupérations pour étayer des thèses pseudo-scientifiques, ce qui a contribué à le discréditer aux yeux de la communauté scientifique.

Au regard d'un certain nombre de découvertes archéologiques parmi les plus spectaculaires de ces vingt dernières années, la question mérite cependant d'être de nouveau considérée sérieusement.

Le présent article est une courte synthèse présentant les principaux résultats des recherches que je mène depuis maintenant deux ans dans le cadre d'un Master Recherche en Archéologie Protohistorique à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Inner worlds and the event of a thread in Isluga, northern Chile

by Penny Dransart

Dransart, Penny 1995 Inner worlds and the event of a thread in Isluga, northern Chile. In P. Dransart (ed.) Andean art: visual expression and its relation to Andean beliefs and values: 228-242. Aldershot: Avebury.

Narrative Cosmology Article

by Kent Forbes

Why consciousness has no plural

by koen stroeken

Questioning cognitive and interpretive takes on ritual

by koen stroeken

Unreading the Pyramids

by Harold Hays

2009e
“Unreading the Pyramids,” in Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale vol. 109, pp. 195-220

Worthy "Gods" and "goddesses": The meaning of modesty in the normalization of Latter-day Saint gender roles

by Rosemary Avance

Cattle and martiality: changing relations between man and landscape in the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age

by Harry Fokkens

This paper was given at a fantastic conference in Arhus in 1998. The fulle reference is:

Fokkens, H. (1999). Cattle and martiality. Changing relations between man and landscape in the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age, in C. Fabech and J. Ringtved (ed). Settlement and landscape. Proceedings of a conference in Århus, Denmark, May 4-7 1998. Århus: Jutland Archaeological Society, 31-38.

In this paper I have tried to discuss two aspects that in my view were important in Bronze Age cosmology: cattle and... more In this paper I have tried to discuss two aspects that in my view were important in Bronze Age cosmology: cattle and martiality. I try to connect data from burial, settlement and depositions in a way that tries to steer away from - in my view modernist - ideas about power, prestige and complexity. An alternative - or rather complementary view is brought forward that stresses the role of objects as inalienable possessions. Gifts not only from man, but also from the ancestors or the supernatural.
Many of the idea's are the basis for my present work and can be found back (much more sophisticated) in the work of David Fontijn.

We come from Trees: The Poetics of Plants among the Jodi of the Venezuelan Guayana

by Stanford & Eglee Zent

Zent, E 2009 Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. 3.1:9-35.

Orion, Uaxactun, Izapa, and Creation

by David Kaufman

The Orion constellation is linked with creation and fertility in the mythology and cosmology of both ancient Mesoamerica and North America.  This paper explores the possibility that, based on monumental evidence at the site of Uaxactun, Orion and creation are both closely linked in Mesoamerica with a February antizenith, or nadir, passage of the sun.  This winter nadir, coinciding with the beginning of the annual agrarian cycle, was perhaps even more important to ancient Mesoamericans than solstices and equinoxes.  The link between the winter nadir and creation is supported by the Popol Vuh creation story and possibly by monumental evidence at the site of Izapa. 

Al-Qur'an dan Kosmologi

by Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad

The paper is in Bahasa Indonesia

Dating the dreaming? Creation of myths and rituals for mounds along the northern Australian coastline.

by Peter Hiscock

2006 Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16:209-22.

Shell mounds ceased to be built in many parts of coastal northern Australia about 800–600 years ago. They are the... more Shell mounds ceased to be built in many parts of coastal northern Australia about 800–600 years ago. They are the subject of stories told by Aboriginal people and some have been incorporated in ritual and political activities during the last 150 years. These understandings emerged only aĞer termination of the economic and environmental system that created them, 800–600 years ago, in a number of widely separated coastal regions. Modern stories and treatments of these mounds by Aboriginal people concern modern or near-modern practices. Modern views of the mounds, their mythological and ritual associations, may be explained by reference to the socioeconomic transitions seen in the archaeological record; but the recent cultural, social and symbolic statements about these places cannot inform us of the process or ideology concerned with the formation of the mounds. Many Aboriginal communities over the last half a millennium actively formed understandings of new landscapes and systems of land use. Attempts to impose historic ideologies and cosmologies on earlier times fail to acknowledge the magnitude and rate of economic and ideological change on the tropical coastline of Australia.

Meteoritics and cosmology among the Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia

by Duane Hamacher

Hamacher, D.W. (2011). Journal of Cosmology, Volume 13, pp. 3743-3753 (2011)

The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral traditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and... more The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral traditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and Luritja Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia. A component of this cosmology relates to meteors, meteorites, and impact craters. This paper discusses the role of meteoritic phenomena in Arrernte and Luritja cosmology, showing not only that these groups incorporated this phenomenon in their cultural traditions, but that their oral traditions regarding the relationship between meteors, meteorites and impact structures suggests the Arrernte and Luritja understood that they are directly related.

Notice: This paper in no way supports or endorses Panspermia or any of the fringe or pseudoscientific material published by this journal or its editors.

Cosmological bonds and settlement aggregation processes during Late Neolithic and Copper Age in South Portugal.

by António Carlos Valera

Thurston, Tina L. and Salisbury, Roderick B.
(eds). 2009. Reimagining Regional Analyses: The Archaeology of Spatial and Social. Dynamics. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In this paper, after a critical analysis of the main models for South Portugal Late Neolithic and Copper Age (c. 3300... more In this paper, after a critical analysis of the main models for South Portugal Late Neolithic and Copper Age (c. 3300 to 2000 cal BC) settlement networks, a local case study will be used to stress the cosmological bonds of territorial organization during the period. The architectural particularities, the contextual evidence and the specific landscape location of Perdigões enclosure (concentric, but dualistic and asymmetric, models of architecture and space organization) suggest that the territorialisation processes (landscape building of aggregated settlements) taking place during Recent Prehistory are shaped by perceptions of the Cosmos.

COSMOLOGIA E RECINTOS DE FOSSOS DA PRÉ-HISTÓRIA RECENTE: RESULTADOS DA PROSPECÇÃO GEOFÍSICA EM XANCRA (CUBA, BEJA)

by António Carlos Valera

The chalcolithic (?) enclosures of Xancra (Cuba, Beja): an image from the geophysical prospection
In the context... more The chalcolithic (?) enclosures of Xancra (Cuba, Beja): an image from the geophysical prospection
In the context of the project “Ditched enclosures design and Neolithic cosmologies: a landscape, architectonic and geophysical approach” a campaign of geophysics prospection, though magnetometry, was conducted in the Xancra site, aiming to acquire a complete plan of the
archaeological site.
The research project aims to approach the cosmological foundations of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosure architectures of South Portugal trough the analysis of their plans obtained by geophysical methods of prospection.
In this case the results were exceptional, providing a global plan of the site and allowing a first analysis of its architectural organization regarding topography and door orientation, which suggests a strong astronomic and cosmological bond.

Mapeando o Cosmos. Uma abordagem cognitiva aos recintos da Pré-História Recente

by António Carlos Valera

Mapping the Cosmos: a cognitive approach to Recent Prehistory enclosures

The paper argues that there is a... more Mapping the Cosmos: a cognitive approach to Recent Prehistory enclosures

The paper argues that there is a cosmological foundation in the location and landscape relations, architectonic design and orientation of some enclosures in Portugal. It presents a cognitive approach to this problem, arguing that particular psychological aspects are important to understand the process.

Jkyo balebï: Prácticas de cacería entre los Hotï de la Guayana Venezolana.

by Stanford & Eglee Zent

En L. Meneses P., G. Gordones Rojas y J. Clarac de Briceño, (eds). Lecturas antropológicas de Venezuela. Mérida, Venezuela: Editorial venezolana. FONACIT-GRIAL-ULA-Museo Arqueológico. Universidad de Los Andes. pp. 295-309. 2007.

Where mythical space lies: land ownership versus land use in the northern Bronze Age

by Antonia Thomas

Co-authored with Jane Downes (University of the Highlands & Islands). Forthcoming book chapter in M. Relaki & D. Catapoti (eds.) An Archaeology of Land Ownership. London, Routledge.

The emergence in the Bronze Age of large scale land divisions is frequently assumed to be direct evidence for... more The emergence in the Bronze Age of large scale land divisions is frequently assumed to be direct evidence for ownership. This assumption, however, neglects the subtleties of engagement between people and land during this time and, as many have argued recently, the appearance of land boundaries in the Bronze Age cannot necessarily be related to our present-day notions of land ownership. In this paper we explore the changing relationship between people, animals and land from the earlier Bronze Age in Orkney, Scotland and Northern Europe, examining ways in which the land was re-categorised and the landscape re-created in relation to changes in agricultural practices and broader understandings of the world. It is suggested that a multi-dimensional cosmological framework of reference manifested itself in the architecture and orientation of houses, barrow cemeteries and boundaries, with movement and inhabitation acknowledging a horizontal and vertical ritual grid wherein upwards, and often northwards, was considered the more sacred. It is proposed that whilst the emergence of land boundaries does relate to the extensification and intensification of agriculture, this is not necessarily analogous with notions of territoriality, ownership or inheritance. Rather it represents an appropriation of lands not previously routinely inhabited through a complex negotiation process between people and the cosmos for tenure of this ‘mythical space’.