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Sacred Directions, Orientation, and the Top of the Map

The practice of dividing the circle of the horizon into four cardinal directions is almost universal, appearing among well-separated peoples of diverse cultural origins. This four-part division is sometimes said to have been suggested to prehistoric man by his astronomical observations: the direction of either the noon sun or the North Star establishes a north-south coordinate through the observer's position; and the positions of the rising and setting sun establish what is roughly an east-west coordinate. But the directions of rising and setting sun vary greatly according to season and latitude, a fact which makes this explanation implausible. It seems more likely that the choice of the number four derives from the symmetry of the human body itself-a symmetry which suggests a four-part division of the horizon: a front and a back, a left and a right side. This is not to say that the number four was repeatedly selected, spontaneously and independently; it could well trace from a single source in man's earliest history. Be this as it may, the four-part frame of reference, at first purely egocentric in that it shifted about depending upon individual viewpoint, was eventually made more abstract and useful with the development of the concept of azi-