Even though archaeoastronomy does not solve particular philosophical conundrums, it casts light on the methods whereby cultures attempt to do so. So-called brown archaeoastronomy, practiced in the Americas, asks why people align structures astronomically. The brown variety seeks to integrate ancient astronomy into its cultural context, providing us with ideas about cultural history. An example is Linda Schele's work interconnecting Maya astronomy to Maya religion and philosophy. By seeking to understand the purposes to which science is put, rather than seeking to judge ancient science by 20th-century standards, a multicultural approach to archaeoastronomy avoids ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is a fallacy that takes one cultural perspective as universally valid.
For example, even though the Sun- centered cosmology is a pivot in the history of modern science, most technologically undeveloped people do not need heliocentrism to explain events in their daily lives. The humans that Seeds referred to include our students as well as ancient peoples. As I have used it in the classroom, archaeoastronomy puts Western, as well as Chinese, philosophy into a relativistic, multicultural context. It has stimulated students' interest in the physical sciences. I begin my Introduction to Philosophy course with a four-week study of the Maya Popol Vuh, the earliest historical link between astronomy and philosophy.