Cultural Calendars explores how societies measure time and how these systems reflect core beliefs and values. It delves into diverse calendar systems, revealing how they shape cultural identity and social practices. Ancient civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia developed calendars based on astronomical observations and agricultural cycles, influencing the social context of rituals, festivals, and agricultural practices.
The book uniquely interprets calendars as cultural artifacts, embodying a society's understanding of time and its place in the cosmos, challenging the notion of universally objective time. It examines lunar calendars prevalent in agrarian societies, solar calendars linked to agricultural cycles like the Gregorian calendar, and lunisolar calendars reconciling lunar and solar cycles, such as traditional Chinese calendars.
The book progresses by introducing fundamental concepts, exploring diverse calendars thematically, and discussing the impact of globalization and modernization. Through historical texts, archaeological findings, and ethnographic studies, Cultural Calendars connects to anthropology, sociology, and religious studies.
It emphasizes respecting diverse timekeeping traditions and recognizing the cultural construction of time, which is essential for intercultural communication and preserving cultural heritage.
