Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoplesNilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
History
Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples
Nilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
Chronology
The Kiwai Papuans who dwell on the opposite coast of New Guinea
have the same star myths as the inhabitants of the Torres Straits
Islands: for them, however, no smaller but only two greater seasons
are mentioned[229]; on the other hand they have months[230]. The
smaller seasons have clashed with the reckoning by moons, and have
surrendered their names to describe the latter. They have therefore
in great measure become merged in the counting of the months, which
will be dealt with later. The greater seasons on the other hand, on
account of their length, could not be merged in the reckoning by
months, and these have therefore everywhere remained. The number of
the longer seasons varies considerably, and is of course connected
not only with the climatic conditions but also with the fundamental
phenomena which for one reason or another attract attention; a
larger season may also be divided into two or three smaller ones.
It may be taken for granted that all peoples outside the tropics,
even where it has not been thought necessary expressly to mention
the fact, know the two larger divisions of the year, the warmer
and colder seasons. Where the plants die in winter and the trees
lose their leaves, or where the snow covers the ground, this
great difference becomes especially pronounced and determines the
whole mode of life: but even in the sub-tropical regions it is
obvious enough. To it corresponds in many parts of the tropics and
sub-tropical zones the natural division into a dry and a rainy
season. For the division into the summer period of vegetation and
winter with its snow and ice it is superfluous to give examples:
the above-quoted description of the year of the Labrador Eskimos
is a typical instance. Swanton and Boas state that certain Indian
tribes of N. W. America divide the year into two equal parts of six
months each, summer extending from April to September, and winter
from October to March[231]. The Comanches reckon by the cold and the
warm seasons[232]. I give a few instances from districts in which
a winter of this nature does not exist. Among the Hopi of Arizona
the year has two divisions--there seems to be no equivalent to our
four seasons--which may be termed the periods of the named and the
nameless months: the former is the cold period, the latter is the
warm. They may also be called the greater and the lesser periods,
since the former begins in August and ends in March[233]. The Zuñi
of western New Mexico also divide the year into two periods of six
months each[234]. The Chocktaw of Louisiana have the same number of
seasons[235]. The natives of Central Australia have names for summer
and winter[236].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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