[Aztlan] tropical cultures and stars

[martha noyes]

This post is triggered by Harold Green's post "Astronomical thinking universal?"

Parts of Mesoamerica and the tropical Pacific share common latitudes.  This, as Harold points out in referring to Aveni, makes some characteristics of sky knowledge similar among the tropical cultures.

Certainly the east to west and zenith-nadir traditions are similar.  And there is probably more.  I recall an Aztlan post about determining the nadir by the presence of the Pleiades at the zenith at midnight.  That does indeed announce one nadir.  But at the northern tropic latitudes there are other celestial markers, too.  The first nadir in the north Pacific tropics is heralded by the presence of the Square of Pegasus at the zenith at sunset.  The second nadir is heralded by the fall of Crux at sunrise.

I use the word "herald" because that and "announce" are the closest English words to the language in the chants and because herald and announce seem to have been the primary purpose in recognizing these phenomena.  

Rigel's heliacal rise was another herald, announcing the coming June solstice.  Rigel stopped rising heliacally before the solstice in the late 1500s, and the Pleiades took its job.

The fact that Mesoamerican cultures and Pacific cultures share latitudes makes for useful comparisons and sometimes sheds a little light.

I'm curious about zenith markers in Mesoamerica at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer.  At that latitude there is only one zenith, and it's on the day of the June solstice (thanks Falken, for pointing this out).  That coincidence of events at that latitude has some significant cultural and archaeological results in Hawaii, and I'm wondering if anyone knows whether there is indication of Mesoamerican attention paid to the zenith/solstice at the Tropic of Cancer.