Watchers of the Pleiades: Ethnoastronomy among Native Cultivators in Northeastern North America

Abstract

Iroquois and Algonquian cultivators of northeastern North America are among the world's varied cultures to observe the bright cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. According to documentary, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence these northeast natives appear to have related the coincidence of the Pleiades' celestial positions in spring and fall with the seasonal limits of the frost-free season. This significant discovery, it is proposed, provided a scientific basis for achieving maize productivity in a near-marginal region; it was therefore a critical part of their cultivation technology and as such is reflected in myths and ceremonies. Look as they rise, up rise Over the line where sky meets the earth; Pleiades! Lo! They ascending, come to guide us, Leading us safely, keeping us one; Pleiades, Us teach to be, like you, united. -Pawnee Ceremonial Song (Fletcher 1904:330) Within recent years anthropologists have witnessed the rise of archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy as a new subdiscipline (Baity 1973). Articles, books, and a bulletin devoted to this subject have appeared in rapid succession, with an Archaeoastronomy in the Americas conference planned for 1979 (Collier and Aveni 1978; Carlson and Williamson 1978). The new interest seems to have been promoted by research begun in the 1960s suggesting that man recorded lunar observations as early as the Upper Paleolithic (Marschack 1972), and that Neolithic farmers aligned the ETHNOHISTORY 25/4 (Fall 1978) 301 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.221 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 05:41:50 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

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