The Limits of "Landscape": Alternative Archaeologies of Space

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

The classical notion of landscape is strongly tied to western thought - and more particularly to North-Western Europe, were it developed during the Middle Ages within a specific context of people’s relationship to the land. It is furthermore closely related to the history of visual representation (including the invention of perspective and cartography), enlightenment science and western convictions about human-nature relationships. In this setting, the landscape came to refer to a sense of territoriality, visual perception and domination over nature (and others). However, we can safely assume that these values did not characterize human living space in the same way or to the same degree in deep history and/or other regions of the world. In accordance with recent trends in archaeological research and interpretation we are exploring critical reformulations of the landscape concept (e.g., "taskscape", "maritime landscape", "soundscape" etc.) as well as alternative notions (such as connectivity, heterotopia, liminality, etc.) that may better fit the spatial and cultural realities of distant societies, both in time and space. The classical landscape concept has its limits from a historical, cultural and intellectual point of view, and it is an explicit aim of this session to explore these limits and cross boundaries.

Other Keywords
Historic Land Use • Analysis • Landscape Archaeology • Cultural Landscape • Landscape • Palaeolithic • Taskscapes • Central America • Nicaragua • Human Niche Construction

Geographic Keywords
Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Belize (Country) • Republic of Honduras (Country) • Jamaica (Country) • Republic of Nicaragua (Country) • Kingdom of Sweden (Country) • Kingdom of Norway (Country) • French Republic (Country) • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort (Country) • Ireland (Country)

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  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • Biographical approach for evaluating archaeological landscapes. A case-study from Estonia (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Martti Veldi.

    Since the 1990s, landscape biography as a research method has diversified. The biographical approach expects a thorough study of a certain region in various fields of landscape research, which span far beyond just geography or archaeology. In contemporary approaches to landscape, the limits of the concept of landscape biography are being explored, but also tested. What exactly is a landscape biography? What does it constitute? Is landscape biography just a narration of a specific defined place...

  • Contrasting worldviews in Hispaniola: Places and Taskscapes at the age of Colonial Encounter (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eduardo Herrera Malatesta.

    Landscape has been an useful analytical tool for archaeologists for a long time. Its definition since its first uses in the discipline has grown and diversified to the point that is has been called a "usefully ambiguous" concept. However, this broad definition should not be applied everywhere and in every temporal/historical context. This concept should not be used as an straight forward analytical tool, but requires a critical contextual revision. For an alternative approach in the area of this...

  • The first cultural landscapes of Europe - and before... (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jan Kolen.

    Cultural landscapes appear relatively late in the human history. In Europe, between c. 40-20.000 BP, people for the first time seem to have transformed (parts of) their environment intentionally on a significant spatial scale in order to make places and areas "fit" for future activities. Already between 40.000 and 30.000 BP, prominent natural formations and hidden places were marked with signs and symbols to enable distant communication. From c. 25.000 BP onwards, on-site constructions, such as...

  • Mohammed’s Paradise: indigenous society and natural surroundings in southern Central America (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexander Geurds.

    Human-environment relations are a point of interest in the archaeology of indigenous southern Central America, defined here to encompass Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. As such, it does not seem to deviate from other world regions. This focus in past and contemporary research reflects the weight given to the idea of natural surroundings as resource endowments, following the cultural ecology approach. Elsewhere, such emphases on material, and indeed economic, sides of human...

  • Not Landscape: Landscape Archaeology as Bricolage (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcos Llobera.

    The late 80s and 90s saw an explosion of landscape studies in archaeology. The notion of landscape was herald as a ‘usefully ambiguous concept’ (Gosden and Head 1994) that was to be applied everywhere only to be later scrutinized and criticized. The emergent interest in landscapes helped archaeologists expand their understanding of the widely diverse range of relationships people maintain with their surroundings, and precipitated a renewed interest in the study of landscapes at a more intimate...