ABSTRACT
The scale and persistence of global influences on all cultures are large and relentless enough to scare even the hardiest ethnographer. In seeking to understand the global, it may be time for intrepid scholars travelling the world to look, like early seafarers, to the stars for assistance. Rather than feeling as though they have to accommodate an ocean of pressures on a topic or site, successful navigation is possible by selecting points of reference that adumbrate the circumstances as they see it. The result would be a constellational outline of
the topic in question. The outline is not a perfect representation of the site; it is, instead, like Orion’s Belt, an interpretation that makes plain the subjectivity of the viewer within a cultural context.
