Skip to main content

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
Cancel
×
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 1
  • Cited by
    Crossref Citations
    Crossref logo
    This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
    Gray, Benjamin J. 2018. Connecting earth and sky: Persuading climate skeptics through analogy. The Extractive Industries and Society, Vol. 5, Issue. 2, p. 293.
    ×
  • Access

The sky as a social field

  • Stanisław Iwaniszewski (a1)
Abstract

Like other features of the surrounding world, objects and events perceived in the sky were used to mediate between humans and specific meanings acquired in relation to them. Celestial bodies were often believed to act like human agents. In this way the skies became part of the social field of human beings—a heterogeneous space in which all important types of relationships could happen. For this reason, the study of the role celestial lore and skywatching played in human populations is a task appropriate to cultural astronomers rather than to astrophysicists or historians of science.

    •
      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      The sky as a social field
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      The sky as a social field
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      The sky as a social field
      Available formats
      ×
Copyright
COPYRIGHT: © International Astronomical Union 2011
References
Hide All
Bird-David, N. 1999, Animism revisited: personhood, environment, and relational epistemology. Current Anthropology 40, Suppl. 167–191.
Bourdieu, P. 1977, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bourdieu, P. 1991, El Sentido Práctico, Taurus, Madrid.
Bourdieu, P. 1998a, La Distinción. Criterio y Bases Sociales del Gusto, Taurus, Madrid.
Bourdieu, P. 1998b, Espacio social y espacio simbólico. Introducción a una lectura japonesa de La Distinción. In Capital Cultural, Escuela y Espacio Social, Siglo XXI Editores, México, D.F., pp. 23–40.
Brague, R. 2003, The Wisdom of the World. The Human Experience of the Universe in the Western Thought, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London.
Buck, C. D. 1971, A Dictionary of Selected Synonims in the Principal Indo-European Languages. A Contribution to the History of Ideas, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London.
Descola, P. 1996, Constructing natures. Symbolic ecology and social practice. In Descola, P. & Pálsson, G. (eds), Nature and Society. Anthropological Perspectives, Routledge, London & New York, pp. 82–102.
Henare, A., Holbraad, M., & Wastell, S. (eds) 2007, Thinking Through Things: Theorising Artefacts Ethnographically, Routledge, London & New York.
Hornborg, A. 2001, Vital signs: An ecosemiotic perspective on the human ecology of Amazonia. Sign Systems Studies 29 (1), 121–151.
Ingold, T. 2000, The Perception of the Environment. Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, Routledge, London & New York.
Iwaniszewski, S. 2005, Venus in the East and West. Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of the Center for Archaeoastronomy 12–13, 151–162.
Iwaniszewski, S. 2007, El sistema social simbólico: una propuesta para la investigación arqueológica. In Fournier, P., Millán, S. & Olavarria, M. E. (eds), Antropología y Simbolismo, CONACULTA-INAH-ENAH-PROMEP, México, D.F., pp. 185–198.
Iwaniszewski, S. 2009, Lunar Cycles among the Classic Maya—from lunar symbolism to the Lunar Series. In Proceedings of the 17th SEAC Annual Meeting, Alexandria, 25.10-1.11.2009 (in press).
Iwaniszewski, S. 2010, Cultural Impacts of Astronomy. In Tymieniecka, A.T. & Grandpierre, A. (eds), Astronomy and Civilization in the New Enlightenment. Passions of the Skies [Analecta Husserliana, 107], Springer, Dordrecht & Heidelberg, pp. 123–129.
Iwaniszewski, S. 2011, The social life of celestial bodies: The sky in cultural perspective. In Rappenglück, M.A., Rappenglück, B. & Campion, N. (eds), Astronomy and Power: How Worlds are Structured. Proceedings of the SEAC 2010 Meeting, Gilching, Germany, BAR International Series, Oxford (in press).
Latour, B. 2008, Reensamblar lo Social: Una Introducción a la Teoría del Actor-Red, Ediciones Manantial, Buenos Aires.
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1979, Antropología Estructural, Siglo XXI Editores, México D.F.
LópezAustin, A. Austin, A. 2005, Modelos a distancia: antiguas concepciones nahuas. In López Austin, A. (ed.), El Modelo de la Ciencia y la Cultura, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México/Siglo XXI Editores, México, D.F., pp. 68–93.
Popper, K. A. 2010, Conocimiento Objetivo, Tecnos, Madrid.
Ricoeur, P. 2003, Teoría de la interpretación. Discurso y excedente de sentido, Siglo XXI Editores & Universidad Iberoamericana, México D.F.
Rochberg, F. 2004, The Heavenly Writing. Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rochberg-Halton, F. 1984, New evidence for the history of astrology. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43 (2), 115–140.
Tuan, Y. F. 1978, Space, time, place: a humanistic frame. In: Carlstein, T., Parkes, D. & Thrift, N. (eds), Making Sense of Time, Wiley, New York, pp. 7–16.
van Binsbergen, W. M. J. & Geschiere, P. L. (eds) 2005, Commodification: Things, Agency, and Identities (The Social Life of Things Revisited), Lit Verlag, Münster.
Viveiros de Castro, E. 1998, Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4 (3), 469–488.
Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
  • ISSN: 1743-9213
  • EISSN: 1743-9221
  • URL: /core/journals/proceedings-of-the-international-astronomical-union
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *

CAPTCHA *

Skip to the audio challenge
×

Keywords:

Metrics

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 5
Total number of PDF views: 133 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 174 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between September 2016 - 13th June 2018. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Cancel
Confirm
×