Transformaciones en los hogares mexicanos, el uso del tiempo y las prevalencias de

Astronomy is not only a major element of traditional and prehistoric life, but also integral to everyday existence. The sky is the domain of weather, time, seasons, sun, moon, stars and planets; additionally, it is animated and rotates. As such, it is a powerful source of perceived cosmic order among cultures. Human concepts about it are expressed as belief, ritual and religion; symbolism in arts and crafts; mythology, lore and storytelling; and architecture (Krupp 1983:231-285).

In some cases, verbal and visual art demonstrate a clear knowledge of solar, lunar and stellar appearances and periodic movement, as well as interest in meteors, rainbows and eclipses. Among the Pueblo and Navajo, knowledge of the sun, moon, planets, stars and constellations enables an annual calendar governing the daily round and determining the timing of agricultural tasks, ceremonies and rituals. This is intertwined with how they perceive the cosmos, conceptually organising the world. Their philosophy is that one can live harmoniously with the supernatural world by doing things in the proper ritualistic manner. The cosmological interrelatedness of various elements is readily seen in Zuni ritual directions. Young (2005:49-50) noted that in the American Southwest, sun- watching sites included buildings with astronomically aligned doorways, windows and walls, particularly for the solstices, which “seemed to be a celebration of the sun of the event — an ‘inviting in’ of the sun or the shadows it cast”.

Many authors have argued that cultural interest in sun and moon movements is indicated in the orientation of prehistoric structures towards particular astronomical phenomena. For example, Ruggles and Martlew’s (1992) research in North Mull found that sites were preferentially placed to associate prominent secondary peaks or groups of them with the southernmost moonrise at the minor standstill and the rise and set of the winter solstitial

sun. Higginbottom and Clay (2014) and Higginbottom et al. (2013, 2015) confirmed these conclusions, adding that when erecting a monumentconsideration was given not only to a single astronomical phenomenon but also to a complete cosmological cycle(s) illustrated by similar horizon profiles around 360°.

The importance of mythology about the sky is illustrated by a study of the social contexts of the production and distribution of greenstone axes from Mt William in Victoria (McBryde 1984). That quarry was preferred over other technologically equivalent sources of the raw material, indicating its symbolic significance. A widespread belief in regional cosmologies that stone axes ‘kept falling from the sky’ implies that their production and movement across the landscape were underwritten by symbolic considerations such as the need to propitiate dangerous supernatural forces to maintain cosmic order. Another myth stated that axes were used by a supernatural being to prevent the sky from falling (Brumm 2009:188, 193).

6.4.2 Earth

Particular natural places acquired significance as doorways between the physical and spirit worlds. Caves and springs served as openings into the underworld, while

mountains led to the upper world where the earth joined the sky. All were perceived to be associated with ancestors and the supernatural. Many remained untouched, enshrined in mythology, while others have evidence of human activity, including sacrificial remains, votive deposits, art and buildings (Bradley 2000:5, 13, 35-3; van Pool 2009). Caves were venues for ritual and burial, presenting a liminal boundary between the world and cave interior, enhanced by silence and darkness. Restricted space and

claustrophobia, fear and danger, and the sense of a permanent night with a constant temperature, all of which could have induced ASC, heightened the sense of moving into another realm.

6.4.3 Water

Water, including rivers, streams, lakes, rapids, springs, waterfalls and whirlpools, represents a fundamental element in virtually all non-western cosmological schemes. It is a portal to the underworld, a metaphor for transition and transformation, and its flow from source to sea provides one for movement, journeys and progression. Its properties and qualities promote its cosmological and elemental significance and engage in all areas of human experience (Richards 1996a:316-317). As noted by Douglas (1994:162), water breaks down form and is associated with purity and regeneration. Bradley (1990:64-68) and Thomas (1991:73-75) have commented on the deposition of objects such as

Peterborough Ware, polished stone axes and maceheads, jet sliders, and human skeletal material, into British rivers and ‘watery places’ during the Neolithic. These artefact types are generally associated with mortuary contexts in caves or barrows, underlining the significance of water during the Neolithic (Richards 1996a:317).

6.4.4 Animals

For many cultures, animals represent not only food that can be hunted or domesticated but are respected as sentient beings that possessed souls and speech and were reborn after death in a continuous round of fertility (e.g., Fienup-Riordan 2003:182-187). Peoples with tiered cosmologies have considered certain animals as totems and as representative of the divine, such as cattle in India; and imbued with supernatural potency as seen in the San with the eland antelope (Lewis-Williams and Pearce 2005:139), the Colombian Indians and the jaguar, and the Haida Indians of the Northwest Coast and the raven (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975:44, 50,77-80). Animals, particularly those that can or are thought to kill humans, such as snakes, crocodiles, felines and even eagles, were feared and revered within many cultures around the world as guardians of supernatural places. Shamans relate to and can transform into them. They can represent people in power.

Lewis-Williams and Pearce (2005:191-192, 145) have commented that movement between levels of the cosmos is always steeped in ritual and religious beliefs, and is symbolically represented by selected creatures. Snakes are prominent in this context in that they live below and above ground, in trees and can swim. Furthermore, in shedding their skins they represent transition and resurrection. Ethnography suggests shamans seek power relationships with a number of species. It is considered that at the beginning of the Neolithic, this kind of differentiation held the potential for competition and social struggle between individual ritual practitioners and small groups of them.

6.4.5 Plants

As noted, plants play many roles and can be regarded as having souls or spirits. Long- lived trees are thought in the Andes and elsewhere to represent ancestors, as they had lived with them and continue to live longer than the human life span. Importantly, some cultural plants are perceived to have special qualities and effects, such as hallucinogens to which shamans credit their extraordinary supernatural power. They are deemed sacred, even deified, and need to be treated carefully and propitiated with offerings lest they turn against those who use them.

Natural portable objects, such as rock and stone, minerals and crystals, shells, and fossils, also have had a long association with humans throughout prehistory and been perceived to have special qualities. In pre-Columbian Peru, for example, stone gained such importance that large rocks were placed in a community centre or on a nearby peak and recognised as the guardian with long-lived human qualities. Small stones, including quartz crystals or unusually shaped or coloured pebbles, were thought to house family ancestors and used to promote fertility of crops and livestock (Sharon 1978:59).

Minerals with qualities of translucence, iridescence and light-giving were items of elite Aztec tribute. Green items were especially valued, denoting fertility. The complexity and inextricability of such imagery for the Aztec is indicated also by the placing of a greenstone in the mouth of a deceased emperor; and by the glyphic combination of a greenstone in a stream of water to signify ‘precious water’, a metaphor for sacrificial human blood (Saunders 2002).

There is worldwide evidence for the ritual and cultural importance of shells as offerings and jewellery. For example, in North America, cylindrical shell beads signified light and spiritual well-being, while pearls were highly regarded for their light-giving and spiritual qualities (Saunders 2002). Dentalium shellwas prestigious in Southwest Asia and traded widely.

Bradley (2000:91) suggested that fossils were of importance because they represent ancestral creatures and plants, as of the long existence of this world, expressing links with the past and other places. They have been included as offerings in many prehistoric places, such as megalithic tombs and incorporated in artefacts (e.g., pottery).

Other natural objects of importance in the prehistoric world are stalactites and

stalagmites which are perceived to hold supernatural qualities not only for their unusual shapes but also for the exclusive development in caves (Bradley 2000:100). At

Çatalhöyük, stalactite pieces were found in structures, some carved with human-like features and even used in jewellery. Their presence suggests cosmological and religious beliefs about an underworld (Lewis-Williams and Pearce 2005:105-106; Mellaart 1967:178). Among the present-day Tukano, a hollowed-out tube of stalactite is the ‘penis of the sun’, holding narcotic powder, which is scraped and consumed with the drug in the transformational process of shaman to jaguar (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975:111).