To expand search, see Indo-Malay Archipelago. Laterally related topics: The Kenyah, The Dyak, The Maloh, The Iban, Java, The Belu of Central Timor, and Bali.
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Ammarell, Gene. Sky calendars of the Indo-Malay archipelago. History of oriental astronomy (New Delhi, 1985), 241--247, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1987. SC: 01A13 (01A07), MR: 1 160 818.
The people of the Indo-Malay archipelago used astronomical events such as the heliacal risings or culminations of stars, the solstices, and the zenith sun to make calendars or otherwise determine the most favorable time for rice planting. There is sometimes a need to measure or mark angles in this context, and methods used include shadow methods (marking the lengths of the tangents on some sticks), an ingenious method of tilting a bamboo stick filled with water, and a method of noting when kernels of rice rolled off an open palm when raised to Orion at dusk. (In the case of one tribe, someone observed that "the time was right for planting when a man looked up to see the Pleiades and his fat fell off!") Closely related topics: Indo-Malay Archipelago, The Calendar, Astronomy, Angular Measure, Agriculture, The Kenyah, Java, The Dyak, The Maloh, and The Iban.