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Calendars, Tribal

The advancement of tribal peoples from rudimentary to scientific calendars reveals their intent to live a harmonious existence with the celestial bodies, and demonstrates the significance of stellar movements for tribal societies in forecasting seasons of harvesting, hunting, and fishing times, and ritual observances. These dedicated prehistoric observers of the sky were the precursors of modern astronomers.

Throughout the world, prehistoric astronomers reverendy observed “the sacred sky”; their legends were affiliated with the stellar movements in concurrence with the changing seasons. Their attentive tracking guaranteed the precise timings of rituals and times of the year, which not only helped advance their societies toward the institution of accurate calendars but also gave rise to distinct cultures and customs, triballifestyles, andworldviews. In the beginning, oral tradition transmitted this knowledge from one generation to the next; the employment of simple measures progressed and diversified into complex and concrete means such as alignment fixtures and symbolic petroglyph recordings. A prestigious position was to monitor these devices and interpret their significance; this responsibility was accorded to a skilled and sanctioned authority, the shamans and priests. Among the Lakota, this was the Keeper of the Counts; among the Zuni, the Sun and Bow Priests; and in the Cherokee tribe, the Day Keeper.

Other planetary cycles were also observed: The Evenks of Siberia tracked the season of the Cosmic Hunt of Ursa Major, or the Great Bear; the Dogon tribe of West Africa kept observations of Sirius; the Pawnee monitored the “White Star Woman” or Venus; the Kahuna Priests of Hawai'i tracked the 223-month eclipse cycle. Daily measurements of time were overseen according to the available location: The Chacoans calculated the day's passing via shadow castings upon the pueblo terraces, while the Salish tribes gauged daily time by observing the ebb and flow of tidal fluctuations. The counting of winters appears to be the universal standard for yearly calculations, though some circumpolar peoples counted a winter year and a summer year.

Seasonal Documentation

Tribal astronomers have created artistic engravings and paintings as reminders of seasonal occurrences, such as the carved baton remnant discovered at Lorthet (Hautes-Pyrenees) bearing reindeer, jumping salmon, and two triangles that scholars theorize as seasonal indications; in Alaska, the season of salmon arriving in a thick blanket of fog is represented upon Tlingit totems and longhouses with “Fog Woman”; the Yakutia rock drawings of Siberia illustrate the Cosmic Elk constellation, which appears in March, foretelling the return of the sun. The Lakota used painted buffalo hides to record extraordinary astronomical occurrences. Also, star maps on cave ceilings from the Old and New Worlds depict stellar illustrations, circles within circles for the sun, or animals such as elk to represent constellations.

Knotted cords were frequently implemented to chronicle time; the Peruvians created the quipu, an intricate system consisting of a rope and attached cords with elaborate knot arrangements. In addition, methodical engravings of notches or drilled holes were universally employed for tallying days, months, and even years; such as the notches upon certain kiva walls in Chaco Canyon for lunar and equinox observances, allowing a sunbeam or moonbeam to glide over the markings to record significant days. Scored trees, for instance, were used by Papua New Guinea tribesmen to calculate lunar months; and the scoring of sticks was utilized by tribes like the Pawnee for makeshift calendars to record days, months, and years. Engraved bone artifacts from the European Upper Paleolithic cultures have been decoded by Alexander Marshack, who posits these markings to be lunar-phasing notations. The Indigenous tribes of the Nicobar Islands utilized chevron hatches and crosshatches for lunar calculations; while on Easter Island the Mamari illustrated tablet represents lunar phases. Winnebago calendar sticks have been used to calculate important dates, such as for planting and for ceremonies.

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