Through the eyes of the living. The study of present societies and the future of cultural astronomy

LÓPEZ, ALEJANDRO MARTÍN

Londres

Conferencia; Keynote Lectures in Skyscape Archaeology; 2020

Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, research and teaching centre within the Institute of Education and Humanities at University of Wales Trinity Saint David; y el Journal of Skyscape Archaeology

In this lecture we aim todiscuss the contributions and possibilities of Ethnoastronomy as a subfield ofcultural astronomy, from our long term experience in this area.The development of whatwe know today as cultural astronomy was first dominated by the influence of Historyof Astronomy and then by Archaeoastronomy. Ethnoastronomical studies, ingeneral, have played a secondary role in the overall picture. This is true notonly in terms of visibility within the field, but especially in terms of theirimpact on the methodological development of this interdisciplinary area. Webelieve that this is a great problem, which deprives the general debate oncultural astronomy of a lot of methodological tools, fresh perspectives, andpossible areas of impact on the contemporary debate. In this lecture we willoutline some of these characteristics and contributions of Ethnoastronomy thatmay be of great relevance to cultural astronomy as a whole. We will alsodiscuss the challenges that Ethnoastronomy represents for those who approach itfrom the diversity of disciplines and backgrounds that converge in culturalastronomy. We will consider the impact of various theoretical-methodologicalcurrents in the social sciences on the practice of this area of studies.Finally, we will point out the potentiality and challenges for the near future.