◈ Borana Calendrical System: A Preliminary Field Report - By Professor Marco Bassi (PhD)
Publication Type: Journal Article
Publication: Current Anthropology
Publication Year: 1998
Description
A number of anthropologists, among them Pecci (1941), Baxter (1954), Habeland (1963), and Legesse (1973), have collected date about calendar of the Borana of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Only Legesse organized his information in a system based on astronomical observation, as Doyle (CA 257: 286-87) has pointed out, his description seems to have some astronomical incongruities. Doyle suggests a new interpretation of Legesse’s data. In this paper I will present some new field information on the calendrical system of the Borana. Most of the data have been provided by my informant Bante Abbagala, a respected elder and an expert on sky observation and the calendar (ayantu). The Borana calendar does not seem to be influenced by the rhythms of the agricultural cycle. The succession of months and of days is conceptualized as cyclic without any beginning. The calendar is used for ritual purposes…
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Marco Bassi, (Dottore di Ricerca, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples) is Adjunct Professor of Political Anthropology at Bologna University.
Current Anthropology Vol. 29, No. 4 (Aug. - Oct., 1988), pp. 619-624 (6 pages)
Published By: The University of Chicago Press