Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures

by Anthony F. Aveni

Compares contemporary timekeeping methods and related cultural perspectives to those of seminomadic tribes and classical civilizations, tracing the influence of calendars, datebooks, clocks, and other means of measuring humankind's most valuable commodity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Anthropology, Popular Science, Archaeology, World History

371 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 1989

About the author

Anthony F. Aveni is Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropology, and Native American Studies at Colgate University.

Reviews

[Guy]

An interesting transect through human sensing and marking of time. Starting at an almost primordial biological level; then a bit on marking of time in oral and written traditions, the lunar-social time of tribal societies; the Western Calendar and clock; the Mayan calendar, Aztecs and the Sun; Incas and their Orientation calendar; and the Chinese Calendar. Not sure how the theories and assumptions presented have fared since my 1995 edition, but a good romp.

I am making a place on my personal five-foot shelf for this book.

[Karen Christino]

The title tells it all! Really not astrology at all, but everything but, since time is essentially based on our experience of astronomical cycles. The first Aveni book I read; it left me wanting more.

[Tomasz]

For quite some time, I wanted to understand how our Western/Gregorian calendar was shaped and which main forces across centuries made it look like it is now. This book covers the topic extremely well. Additionally, it describes various approaches to measure time by different civilizations (China, Aztecs, Mayan, etc.) so my urge to learn a bit about other calendars was also satisfied.

[Dan Bozung]

Interesting, but a bit textbook-y. Skipped over some of the minutiae. Parts dealing with how various cultures came to conceive of and measure time very insightful. Generally enjoyed it.

[Jennifer Sigman]

DNF - just can't get into it

[Bold Bookworm]

... Aveni gives solid information with some good examples and covers a decent range of cultures. He does foist a bit of filler and speculation when discussing the development of, for example, the Mayan, Aztec and Incan calendars. In all three instances, the caramel nugget of their calendar-astronomy-social engineering system was inherited and Aveni doesn’t dwell too much on the clearly quite sophisticated predecessors of these cultures. Nonetheless, he gives a strong technical analysis of the systems he explores and leaves the reader hungry for more of his empathetic and oftentimes poetic descriptions of the cultures and creations of the ancient skywatchers. Good, because he has other books on the topic.

Read my full review here: http://boldbookworm.com/eot121610.html

~ BB

http://boldbookworm.com

[James]

Aveni compares and contrasts the way that ancient Mayan, Aztec, and Inca societies thought of, and related to, time. So different! He also compares these to our current society's view of time and makes the case that we have become separated from natural systems in our view of ourselves and our place in time.

[Steve]

Great overview of calendars and time concepts, especially among the Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Chinese. Enjoyable for anyone with an interest in this subject, whether or not they are hardcore science or archaeology people.

[Peter]

A great comparison of ancient and modern cultures, attitudes toward time, their calendars and the natural origins of their longest views on time. More poetic than most books on this topic, it still has enough math to satisfy the academics who want to see a thorough testing of his hypotheses.

[Caroline]

tracking cycles of sun, star, human: biological constant, cultural variables