Читать книгу Primitive Time-reckoning. A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples онлайн

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It would seem that the whole year might easily arise through the fusion of these two larger periods: that this is not the case will be shewn in the following chapter.

These half-years are as a rule well defined, but the natural conditions upon which they depend are subject to fluctuation, and in particular there are transitional periods the position of which cannot be certainly decided. Moreover smaller characteristic periods arise within the larger, and hence more seasons appear. Elsewhere the natural conditions are such that they directly lead to more than two seasons, e. g. where there are two different rainy seasons in the year. From these circumstances it becomes plain that a fluctuation between a larger or smaller number of seasons is possible, and indeed it often actually occurs. The seasons that adhere to natural phenomena are never clearly defined like a division of the calendar: the limits are uncertain, different seasons may be merged into one another or in part overlap one another, as has been shewn in the case of the Eskimos of Labrador.