Living the Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On an isolated, windswept mountain slope high in the Wyoming Rockies, the ancient Bighorn Medicine Wheel still marks the yearly arrival of midsummer day, June..." (more)
Key Phrases: supernova records, heliacal rise, winter solstice sunrise, Native American, Chaco Canyon, Casa Rinconada (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806120347
• ISBN-13: 978-0806120348
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,912 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #55 in

  Books > Science > Archaeology > Native American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars North American Indians as Astronomers and Cosmologists, November 20, 2005

By	Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Ray A .Williamson, now of the Space Policy Institute at the George Washington University, has written an important narrative and analysis of the astronomy and cosmology of Native America. Concentrating on the American Southwest and the Great Plains, especially the Pueblo, Navajo, and Pawnee, Williamson carefully reconstructs the astronomy of these native peoples and how those understandings related to the manner in which they lived their lives. He emphasizes the role of archeoastronomy in this process, harnessing history, science, sociology, and anthropology to uncover a long distant and poorly understood past in North America.

Williamson finds that "To live in harmony with the world and its cycles is the goal of traditional Native Americans. Their patterns for living derive from a deeply held attention to the rhythms of the sky and earth" (p. 319). The result is an important study illuminating the Native American view of existence.