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Dante L. Ambrosio, Ph.D.
"Dante"
PSHS Batch 1970
Birth: 1951
Place of Birth: Malabon
Death: June 4, 2011
"THE night sky was full of twinkling stars when University of the Philippines (UP) History Prof. Dante Ambrosio died on Saturday after a lingering illness. His passing on has created a vacuum in the academic community, in the field of astronomy and in the hearts of trade-union workers.
His interest in the heavens and stars started when he was a high-school student at the Philippine Science High School in 1966. Together with his siblings, he would climb to their roof in their house in Malabon to star gaze, using a big telescope. He talked of Orion and Pleaiades constellations, Tatlong Maria and Supot ni Hudas that whet his appetite to study them.
His recent published book Balatik trailblazed the study of the newly coined word “etnoastronomiya.” Balatik is a Visayan word for Orion whom he found out to be a guiding constellation for the indigenous farmers in pre-Hispanic Philippines. He concluded that the present-day civilization can read the ancient past in the heavens, stars and constellations.
His method of teaching History in UP was through storytelling that students always asked him about his activism since the 1970s. Twice detained, this former Physics student at the Ateneo, suffered torture in the hands of the military under Martial Law. He transferred to UP and shifted to history where he continued writing about trade unionism of the Philippine left."
- from " Dante Ambrosio, historian-astronomer cum professor, passes on" by GLORIA ESGUERRA MELENCIO, published in the Business Mirror, 11 JUNE 2011
Photos
Books and Articles
photo courtesy of Pisay Dos
photo credit: Journey to the Stars Blogspot
Balatik: Katutubong Bituin ng mga Pilipino
Journal article published 2005. Philippine Social Sciences Review. Vol. 57, Nos. 1-4.
"Various Philippine cultures have long ago formed their own map of the sky by organizing the stars into constellations. They have, thus, claimed the sky as their own and put their own distinctive marks on it. As they made the sky part of their culture, it in turn, influenced the way they think, act and live....."
Articles on Ethnoastronomy by Dr. Dante L. Ambrosio published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer:
Balátik and Moropóro: Stars of Philippine skies
Bakunawa and Laho: Eclipse and the Snake in the Sky
Other links
Tribute to Dante L. Ambrosio in Arkibong Bayan website
DANTE AMBROSIO, Historyador at Ama ng Etnoastronomiyang Pilipino - article in Philippine Historical Association Blog
Folk knowledge and multi-lingual education - article by Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco published in PDI
Dr. Dante L. Ambrosio and Ethnoastronomy in the Philippines - article in Journey to the Stars Blog
Pamaalam kay Dante Ambrosio ni Judy Taguiwalo in the Pisay Dos website
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photo from the Arkibong Bayan Website
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