Introduction

Symposium on Calendars Used in Asia and Oceania

Mitsuru SÔMA*1, Kiyotaka TANIKAWA*1 & Akira GOTO*2

Making calendars has been an important subject ofwith presenters should have been a great stimulus toastronomers from ancient times until now. There arerespective participants in the symposium. It is to belong histories of making calendars in Asian andnoted that not all presentations are included in theOceanian countries. Two of the editors (Sôma andpresent Research Papers of the AnthropologicalTanikawa) have been organizing international symposia

Institute. The contributions from East Asia are lacking.

on history of astronomy and historical astronomy for

In the next chance we would like to call for worldwide

more than fifteen years. The third editor (Goto) has been

calendar researchers including those who are working

interested in the calendars other than those in theon the calendars of Meso-America and South-America.

Eurasian continent and has been trying to extend theLet us briefly introduce the contents of the presentations

scope of calendars. The purpose of the present sympo-included in the Research Papers.

sium, held on 2021 March 15–16 online, is to have aTakuro Furusawa talks about the calendars of thecommon understanding on various calendars used inWestern Sumba, Indonesia. He focuses on two unique

Asian and Oceanian countries and on their history andpoints in the time reckoning of the Sumba, the Month ofdevelopment. Contributors to this symposium are theSea Worms and the Month of Bitterness, which are crucial

representative researchers on calendars of their nations.

in the intercalation method. K. Ramasubramanian

We believe that this kind of symposium can only beattempts to pay a tribute to Dr. Yukio Ôhashi, who sud-organized by the current editors.

denly passed away in 2019, and spans two main sections

We know that there are differences and similarities incovering a bibliographic note and highlights that show-

the calendars of various regions of the world. We recog-case Ôhashi’s acuity in the outstanding research in thenize that these differences and similarities come fromfield of history of Indian astronomy and mathematics.

those of astronomy in the respective regions. The evolu-B. S. Shylaja tries to analyse the evolution of the calen-tion of calendars reflects the evolution of astronomy.

dars of South and Southeast Asia over the last thousand

Researchers in the respective regions know very well

years using the stone inscriptions. The practice of

their calendars together with the history of their calen-

making stone inscriptions had been extended fromdars. However they do not know the calendars of otherIndia. According to the author the time is recorded very

regions. Due to this they may not know the meaning ofsystematically and hence these serve as reliable time

their calendars in the totality of the world calendars. Ourmarkers. Makibi Nakano reports the classification ofsymposium was held in replying to the latent require-seasons by Sama-Bajau fishermen in Banggai Islands,ments from them.

Indonesia, comparing the cases in four local villages
with climatological data. Akira Goto discusses theTo listen to the talk on other calendars and to discuss*1 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)*2 Nanzan University

1Symposium on Calendars Used in Asia and Oceania

Symposium on Calendars Used in Asia and Oceania

号（２０２２）

Research Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.11 (2022)『人類学研究所 研究論集』第11prototype calendars of the voyagers who settled in the60° East to 170° East which means the time difference

islands of Oceania. He demonstrates the importance ofof seven and a half hours. This kind of difficultycelestial bodies, especially the Pleiades, to yam andincreases if we include researchers of Meso- and South-

breadfruit cultivation, as well as the importance of theAmerica. Some ideas are needed to organize a global

Milky Way, relative to monsoon variation and naviga-symposium at a time even in the network world.

tion. Mohammad Bagheri gives an account of the earlyThis symposium is co-organized by National Astro-

Iranian pre-Islamic calendars and also the Iranian calen-

nomical Observatory of Japan, Nanzan University, anddars which were used after the advent of Islam in Iran.

Central Japan Anthropological Seminar. This sympo-

He talks about the works of great scholars Abu Rayhansium is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant

Biruni and Umar Khayyam. Yoshitaka Hojo discusses

Number JP19H05732, by NAOJ Research Coordination

the possibility of the recognition of the solstices andCommittee, NINS, Grant Number 1902-0203 and byequinoxes in the prehistoric society of the Japanese

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovativearchipelago, and concludes that a reasonably well-Areas (2019–2023) Integrative Human Historicalorganized calendar was used even if it was primitive.

Science of “Out of Eurasia” Exploring the Mechanisms

In organizing an online International symposium weof the Development of Civilization. The editors express

for the first time encountered with the difficulty of

their sincere thanks to Nanzan University for publishingdetermining the starting and ending times. The partici-the symposium papers in the Research Papers of thepants covered the wide geographical longitudes from

Anthropological Institute.

2