Time and Landscape

Morar en las Lagunas: Lugares de Cazadores Recolectores en la Pampa Bonaerense (Argentina)

“…Ya sea en forma de ríos, arroyos, lagos o lagunas, el agua forma parte de dichos contextos: como recurso indispensable para la vida, como fuente de recursos naturales, creando fronteras, dividiendo u ordenando el espacio, pudiendo incluso resultar un hito sobre el terreno (Richards 1996, Strang 2005. Desde esta perspectiva, el paisaje es entendido como la síntesis de la dimensión física del medio natural con la dimensión humana, social y simbólica (Bender 2002, Criado Boado 1999, Curtoni 2007, Ingold 2000, Thomas 2001, Tilley 1994, Troncoso 1999.…”

Of His Bones are Coral Made: Submerged Cultural Resources, Site Formation Processes, and Multiple Scales of Interpretation in Coastal Ghana

“…When investigating the archaeological record, "a thing of shreds and tatters" (Ramenofsky and Steffen 1998:3), one cannot artificially separate theory from method; theory is meaningless if it cannot be applied, and methods are only useful if they are used to answer meaningful questions and as the "bridge between ideas and entities" (Ramenofsky and Steffen 1998:3; see also Flatman 2003;Gibbs 2006b;Knapp 1992:4;Richards 2006). In the same way, the commonly held view of the "false history/science dichotomy" (Feinman 1997:374; see also Bender 2002;Butzer 1980;Cederlund 1995;Hassan 2004;Maarleveld 1995;McGovern 1995:80-82;Sewell 2005:16-17, 113;Smith 1992:24;Staniforth 2003), which implies that archaeology and long-term studies must be either historical or scientific, is not in fact a dichotomy, but rather presents two complimentary approaches (Kowalewski 1997:304). Anthropologically-guided methodologies such as formation process research, in using both historical and scientific research agendas (theories) and methodologies, offer insights into worlds we can only see right now as random mounds and bits of things on the seafloor.…”

“…Scale includes concepts of space, relationships, and time (Bender 2002;Firth 1995;Foxhall 2000;Rapp and Hill 2006:130-131;Staniforth 2003:19). In the example of underwater research into historical maritime trade, scales of space can include anything from individual site locations to regions to international networks spanning oceans.…”

African Landscapes

“…He points out that 'what appear to us fixed forms of the landscape, passive and unchanging unless acted upon from outside, are themselves in motion, albeit on a scale immeasurably slower and more majestic than that on which our own activities are conducted' (Ingold, 1993 , p. 164). Bender (2002) made a similar point when stressing that landscapes are materialisations of very different temporalities: (1) there is landscape as solid geology which addresses evolutionary time, (2) there is the topography of landscapes with its great time depth materialising geoecological as well as human interventions, (3) there are the seasonally changing vegetational patterns of landscapes, and (4) there is the landscape which directly mirrors human land-use (Bender, 2002 , p. 103). Zooming in on these points Bender describes landscapes as 'time materialising' (Bender, 2002 , p. 103).…”