Cultivated Historical Landscapes: Theoretical Aspect for the Archaeology of Andean Colonial Gardens and Fields

Summary

Colonial landscapes are the materialization of conquest. Ornamental gardens and agricultural fields are some of its most evident manifestations. These small-scale landscapes are the physical representations of the triumph over nature. They were created and conceptualized to replicate the sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures of the political centres. The physical aspects of the cultivated fields are then visual representations of imposed sociopolitical structures and concomitant class relations. The study of cultivated landscapes crosses disciplinary boundaries, allowing us to integrate different data sets. Historical archaeologists and historical geographers have studied landscape to further understand how the organization of space has been intentionally created to symbolically express the new social orders of colonial regimes. In this presentation, I will review the most significant theoretical approaches applied to interpret colonialism through landscape theory and garden archaeology in order to suggest a theoretical framework to study colonial cultivated spaces in the Andean region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Las preguntas que cuentan: Ideas and interpretations in Latin American Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-33,15