Abstract
The Mursi and Borana are two indigenous groups inhabiting areas relatively close together in southern Ethiopia and (in the Borana case) northern Kenya. Elements of their very different calendrical systems were recorded by ethnographers in the mid-twentieth century. Both systems provide excellent case studies that counter a number of assumptions about the nature and development of indigenous calendars that are too easily made from a “Western” standpoint.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bassi M (1988) On the Borana calendrical system: a preliminary field report. Current Anthropology 29:619–624
Bassi M (2005) Decisions in the shade: political and juridicial processes among the Oromo-Borana. Red Sea Press, Trenton
Baxter PTW, Hultin J, Triulzi A (eds) (1996) Being and becoming Oromo: historical and anthropological enquiries. Red Sea Press, Lawrenceville
Doyle LR (1986) The Borana calendar reinterpreted. Current Anthropology 27:286–287
Lasage R, Seifu A, Hoogland M, de Vries A (2010) Report on general characteristics of the Borana zone, Ethiopia. IVM Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University, Amsterdam. http://www.adapts.nl/perch/resources/generalcharacteristicsboranazone.pdf. Accessed 12 Mar 2013
Legesse A (1973) Gada: three approaches to the study of African society. Macmillan, New York
Lynch BM, Robbins LH (1978) Namoratunga: the first archaeoastronomical evidence in sub-Saharan Africa. Science 200:766–768
Paul G (1979) The astronomical dating of a northeast African stone configuration. The Observatory 99:206–209
Ruggles CLN (1987) The Borana calendar: some observations. Archaeoastronomy 11 (Supplement to the Journal for the History for Astronomy 18):S35–S53
Ruggles CLN, Turton DA (2005) The haphazard astronomy of the Mursi. In: Chamberlain VD, Carlson JB, Young J (eds) Songs from the sky: indigenous astronomical and cosmological traditions of the world. Ocarina Books and Center for Archaeoastronomy, Bognor Regis/College Park, pp 298–309
Soper R (1982) Archaeo-astronomical Cushites: some comments. Azania 17:145–162
Tablino P (1994) The reckoning of time by the Borana ayyantu. Rassegna di Studi Ethiopici 38:191–205
Turton DA (1988) Looking for a cool place: the Mursi, 1890s–1980s. In: Anderson D, Johnson D (eds) The ecology of survival: case studies in northeast African history. Lester Crook Academic Publishing/Westview Press, Boulder, pp 261–282
Turton DA (1989) Warfare, vulnerability and survival: a case from southwestern Ethiopia. Camb Anthropol 13:67–85
Turton DA (1994) Mursi political identity and warfare: the survival of an idea. In: Fukui K, Markakis J (eds) Ethnicity and conflict in the Horn of Africa. James Currey, London, pp 15–32
Turton DA (2004) Lip-plates and ‘the people who take photographs’: uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in southern Ethiopia. Anthropology Today 20(3):3–8
Turton DA (ed) (2007–2013) Mursi online. http://www.mursi.org/. Accessed 12 Mar 2013
Turton DA, Ruggles CLN (1978) Agreeing to disagree: the measurement of duration in a southwestern Ethiopian community. Current Anthropology 19:585–600
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ruggles, C.L.N. (2015). Mursi and Borana Calendars. In: Ruggles, C. (eds) Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_100
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_100
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6140-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6141-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics