Stellar Connections: Explorations in Cultural Astronomy

In Indigenous worldviews where humanity, nature, and the spiritual realm are closely connected, the night sky provides spiritual and navigational guidance, timekeeping, weather prediction, and stories and legends that tell us how to live a proper life. Cultural Astronomy explores the distinctive ways that astronomy is culturally embedded in the practices and traditions of various peoples.


This first installment in the National Museum of the American Indian Native Programs eBook Collection presents over two and a half hours of slide illustrated lectures by four renowned Ethnoastronomers.


You will see Gary Urton present "Cosmologies of the Milky Way: South American Views on the Unity of Earth and Sky," Michael Wassegijig Price address "Underwater Panthers, Thunderbirds, and Anishinaabe Star Knowledge," John MacDonald focus on "The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and Legend," and Babatunde Lawal share African traditions in "A Big Calabash with Two Halves: The Yoruba Vision of the Cosmos."


This eBook is the first in a series that will allow you to sit in on a plethora of events presented by the National Museum of the American Indian, a Smithsonian Museum located on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and in New York City.