Springer Press is publishing the first of its kind a Handbook of Archaeoastronomy. The two editors are regulars at the Oxford meetings (www.archaeoastronomy.org) and the SEAC meetings (www.archeoastronomy.org) Drs. Ruggles and Lopez. My article is to lead the section on Africa. Due to my involvement with making a documentary film, attending conferences in Europe, and screening my other documentary in film festivals, I chose to focus on just two aspects of cultural astronomy: art and myth.
For the art section I make the point that there is a spectrum of celestial art in Africa with obvious and recognizable depictions of the sky on one end and deeply symbolic art on the other. Examples I used to make my points included artwork from the Bahima people of Uganda, the Akan of Ghana, the Mambila of Cameroon, the Tabwe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Igbo of Nigeria. Here are the links to some of these: cover_large.jpg, http://carlos.emory.edu/COLLECTION/AFRICA/africa09.html, and http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra/osra.htm.
For the creation myth section I used myths from the Zulu, the Yoruba, and the Boshongo. My point was that a lot can be inferred about initial conditions, evolution, and social structures from these examples.
Keep an eye out for the Handbook of Archaeoastronomy scheduled to be available next year.
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