Astronomy is certainly the oldest science and that of astronomer probably the oldest profession. This second assertion is notoriously debatable, but one can safely assume that in a primitive civilized society the (remunerated) shaman or priest had to be an astronomer to be credible. For a long time astronomy played a very important role in society (and parts of the present book describe some aspects of this role); it is only quite recently that astronomy has been relegated to the status of a more or less ordinary scientific research activity, so that today being an astronomer is just being a scientist like any other. Remnants of past.
