Conceptualizing a Landscape Approach to Archaeology Terry Beaulieu University of Calgary Plains Anthropological Conference Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 4-October-2012

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Landscape affects interpretations Changing definition Often vaguely or poorly defined Leads to confusion and misunderstanding  Three key concepts Space Place Environment

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Newtonian space Independent and unchanging Space is location Fixed and independent of human perception Can be referenced either absolutely or relatively

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Place Mobile, not fixed Has varying levels of significance  Among places, between individual/groups and over time  Place Should not be used interchangeably with space Conceptual occupation of space Constantly being created and recreated Cultural construction of the mind

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Environment Intimately linked to space and place “a piece of reality that is simply there” (Tuan 1979) Exists independent of human conception “a full sense of agency is never achieved” (Trifkovic 2006)  Affordances What is offered by the environment (Gibson 1979) Some claim they are simply environmental properties Relational affordances (Chemero 2003)  The relations between organisms and the environment

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Landscape “is not ‘land’, is not ‘nature’, and it is not ‘space’” (Ingold 1993) The web created by the collection of recognized places Is a cultural creation, not a physical reality  Landscape All places within a landscape are related to one another Unique over time and between individuals/groups Are continuously being created and recreated

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Most archaeology has been ecological  Landscape approaches Called into question assumptive biases  e.g. the archaeological ‘site’ is a modern construction Proposed new interpretations of tipi ring significance Recognized the importance of place names Realized the complex culture/environment connection Presented new interpretations of seasonal movement Reconciled the archaeological record and environmental evidence with a non-Western world view

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference Place on the Plains  Landscape Archaeology The intersection of space, place, and environment The recognition our world is but a perception of reality that is inherently biased – but it is within those biases that the most satisfying interpretations are found

Terry Beaulieu 2012 Plains Anthropological Conference REFERENCES CITED Chemero, A An Outline of a Theory of Affordances. Ecological Psychology. 15(2): Gibson, J.J The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Ingold, T The Temporality of the Landscape. World Archaeology 25(2): Trifkovic, V Persons and Landscapes: Shifting Scales of Landscape Archaeology. In Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues of Theory and Practice, edited by G. Lock and B. L. Molyneaux, pp Springer, New York, NY. Tuan, Y.F Thought and Landscape: The Eye and the Mind's Eye. In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes, edited by D. W. Meinig, pp Oxford University Press, New York, NY. REFERENCES CITED Chemero, A An Outline of a Theory of Affordances. Ecological Psychology. 15(2): Gibson, J.J The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Ingold, T The Temporality of the Landscape. World Archaeology 25(2): Trifkovic, V Persons and Landscapes: Shifting Scales of Landscape Archaeology. In Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues of Theory and Practice, edited by G. Lock and B. L. Molyneaux, pp Springer, New York, NY. Tuan, Y.F Thought and Landscape: The Eye and the Mind's Eye. In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes, edited by D. W. Meinig, pp Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Thank you