LegesseA., Gada: Three approaches to the study of African society (New York, 1973).
2.
Ibid., chap. 7.
3.
Ibid.179.
4.
DoyleL. R., “The Borana calendar reinterpreted”, Current anthropology, xxvii (1986), 286–7.
5.
This is true at the latitude of Borana country (approx. 5°N), which is sufficiently near the equator that the rising and setting paths of celestial objects are nearly vertical.
6.
LynchB. M.RobbinsL. H., “Namoratunga: The first archaeoastronomical evidence in sub-Saharan Africa”, Science, cc (1978), 766–8. For a fuller discussion of the site and its cultural context see LynchB. M.RobbinsL. H., “Cushitic and Nilotic prehistory: New archaeological evidence from north-west Kenya”, Journal of African history, xx (1979), 319–28.
7.
Doyle, op. cit. (ref. 4).
8.
LynchRobbins, op. cit. (ref. 6).
9.
Ibid..
10.
PaulG., “The astronomical dating of a northeast African stone configuration”, The observatory, xcix (1979), 206–9.
11.
A glance at Fig. 3 of Lynch and Robbins (op. cit., ref. 6) shows a number of apparently equally plausible alignments, such as 1–13,1–10 and 5–12, which have not been included. For instance, stone 19 is omitted from consideration on the grounds that it is the smallest at the site, but one must ask whether it would have been included if orientations involving it had been found to be of astronomical interest.
12.
SoperR., “Archaeo-astronomical Cushites: Some comments”, Azania, xvii (1982), 145–62, p. 149.
13.
Ibid.156.
14.
TurtonD. A.TurtonP., “Spontaneous resettlement after drought: An Ethiopian example”, Disasters, viii (1984), 178–89.
15.
Soper, op. cit. (ref. 12).
16.
Legesse, op. cit. (ref. 1), 181.
17.
Ibid.185.
18.
Ibid.186 and Fig. 7–2
19.
Ibid.184.
20.
Ibid.185.
21.
Ibid., Fig. 7–1
22.
Doyle, op. cit. (ref. 4).
23.
Legesse, op. cit. (ref. 1), 180.
24.
TurtonD. A.RugglesC. L. N., “Agreeing to disagree: The measurement of duration in a southwestern Ethiopian community”, Current anthropology, xix (1978), 585–600. See also RugglesC. L. N.TurtonD. A., “The haphazard astronomy of the Mursi”, in Von DelChamberlainCarlsonJ. B.YoungM. J. (eds), Proceedings of the First World Ethnoastronomy Conference, in press.
25.
Legesse, op. cit. (ref. 1), 180.
26.
Legesse (ibid.), like many others, seems to assume that the only way that the ‘lunar year’ can be kept in step with the solar year is by the use of intercalary months. This assumption betrays ethnocentrism, as Turton and Ruggles (ref. 23) show.
27.
TurtonRuggles, op. cit. (ref. 24), 591.
28.
Legesse, op. cit. (ref. 1), 188.
29.
Ibid.184.
30.
Ibid.186.
31.
TurtonRuggles, op. cit. (ref. 24), 590.
32.
Legesse, op. cit. (ref. 1), 185.
33.
Ibid.188.
34.
Ibid.185.
35.
Ibid., Fig. 7–1
36.
For further discussion of this point see AveniA. F., “The Thom paradigm in the Americas: The case of the cross-circle designs”, in RugglesC. L. N. (ed.), Records in stone: Papers in memory of Alexander Thom, in press.
