Por una astronomía cultural renovada

Abstract

Cultural astronomy is the name given to the study of the relations between people’s perceptions of the sky and the organization of different aspects of the social life. The paper critically examines the potential utility of the traditional approaches of the history of astronomy, archaeoastronomy and cultural astronomy, concluding that they all operate within a paradigm which views the sky as a neutral or meaningless category. The sky is usually treated as a homogenous and abstract framework within which the human societies act. The author argues that the meaning of the sky does not exist in itself, but it is revealed through human motivations and practices; therefore the sky and human societies cannot be treated separately as if they consisted of two different realms. This perspective offers more rewarding venues for the future reassessment of cultural astronomy.