The Luni-solar Calendar of the Hopi of Northern Arizona, USA

Johannes Ortner
University of Vienna

The luni-solar calendar of the Hopi is based upon a horizon calendar which determines the annual religious cycle as well as the series of agricultural tasks. Presenting the winter solstice, I clarify the connection between astronomy and Hopi world view in its 3-dimensional aspect: the upper world of spirits, the human level and the underworld of the ancestors. Observations of lunar phases led to the mirrorlike bi-partition of Hopi thought. At the end I discuss the problem of different astronomies which stress on different categories of the sky and, finally, are there any philosophical differences between our astronomy and theirs?