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UCLA <Allenr@ucla.edu> If readers interested in African astronomies can forgive own-horn-tooting, I have two articles in this domain: 1982 "'Comets Importing Change of Times and States': Ephemerae and Process Among the Tabwa of Zaire. _American Ethnologist_ 9 (4), 712-29. Spectacular Sungrazer comets visible in the Southern Hemisphere in the 1880s presaged colonial conquest and other calamities, and among Tabwa, were felt to be Jesus bringing "European-ness" (that is, rank power and new technologies) to the conquerors. 1981 "Passage Stellified: Speculation Upon Archaeoastronomy in Southeastern Zaire." _Archaeoastronomy_ 4 (4), 27-37. People living along the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika used star settings to navigate, and people to their south stellified aspects of origin myths. A classic but too-often-overlooked author with a number of articles on Bamana and related astronomies is the late Dominique Zahan. Those intrigued by such things may also enjoy pondering a question to which I haven't found any answers yet: do the worldwide celestial phenomena associated with the Krakatoa volcano eruption ("blue moons," fire-red sunsets, etc.) show up in historical African ethnography from the late 19th century? I haven't found any evidence, but do imagine Africans were as impressed as people elsewhere.
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