Empires of Time : Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures, Revised Edition

List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Preface to the Revised Edition xi Introduction: Our Time---And Theirs 1(12) I--SENSING AND MARKING TIME The Basic Rhythms 13(20) Tracking Down the Sense of Time A Multitude of Inner Rhythms Mechanism as Metaphor Early Time Reckoning 33(42) The Oral Mode The Written Mode II---OUR TIME: THE IMPOSITION OF ORDER The Western Calendar 75(30) The Day and Its Hours The Smallest Units of Time The Week and Its Days The Month and Its Moon The Months and Their Politics The Year and Its Accumulation in History 105(42) The Western Year Long-Time Reckoning and Great Years Our Creation Stories Today's Empire of the Clock III--THEIR TIME: FOLLOWING THE ORDER OF THE SKIES Tribal Societies and Lunar-Social Time 147(16) The Ecological Cycle Structural Time The Interlocking Calendars of the Maya 163(62) Introduction: Three American Empires The Maya and the Body Count The Cycles of Venus The Maya Decline Characteristics of Maya Timekeeping The Aztecs and the Sun 225(22) A Cycle of Celebrations The World Diagram The Creation Story Restructuring Time to Legitimize Aztec Rule The Incas and Their Orientation Calendar 247(24) Sun Watching Counting the Days Eastern Standard: Time Reckoning in China 271(18) The Chinese World View and Sense of History The Chinese Calendar IV--A WORLD OF TIME Building on the Basic Rhythms 289(14) Recurring Cycles The Linearization of Time Controlling the Rhythms Epilogue 303(2) Notes 305(16) Index 321