ABSTRACT
This chapter presents ethno- and archaeo-astronomical data which reveals that California's native inhabitants had a profound and long-standing involvement with the heavens, one certainly far more sophisticated than previously realized. It also presents a general picture of this complex body of knowledge among California's hunter-gatherers, and to offer a strong challenge to the assumption that hunter-gatherers did not achieve a relatively sophisticated astronomy. Most nineteenth and early twentieth century ethnographers lacked special training in astronomy and, handicapped further by the assumption of unsophisticated astronomy among California Indians, they usually failed to record much more than general descriptions. It is important that the reader understand to some extent the nature of cultural variability in California. Before describing native California astronomy, it is well to begin by describing the setting. In southern California there was the widespread belief that Sun or Moon was being eaten by spirits.
