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The sky as a social field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2011

Stanisław Iwaniszewski
Stanisław Iwaniszewski*
Affiliation:
Department of Postgraduate Studies in Archaeology, National School of Anthropology and History - National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico City, Mexico email: siwanisz@yahoo.com
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Abstract

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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.

Keywords

cultural astronomysocial fieldtheory of practiceBourdieu
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S278: “Oxford IX” International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy , January 2011 , pp. 30 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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