Inscribed Landscapes: Marking and Making Place

Preface

T his book is an archaeological and social anthropological exploration of the role of place marking in place making. The approaches taken by the various authors are varied, although all are united in the view that landscapes are not simply “out there,” but constructed in social engagement. People physically inscribe spaces, such as in rock-art, monuments, and the like, in the process of dwelling. More intimately, people’s spatial experiences are inscribed through the senses. Both people and place are codefined in a process of engagement that involves inscription. It is various dimensions of this codefinition that are explored in this book. The initial seeds for this volume were laid in 1998 when we considered assembling a group of researchers to discuss how the marking of place affects human interaction and perception. At first we were particularly interested in how places marked or decorated with rock-art gained significance as socially marked territorial (already-owned) spaces. The psychological and social implications of such a process of place marking are considerable, but have remained largely unexplored by archaeologists. However, we were not entirely satisfied with the initially bounded archaeological direction for this book. It was clear that it was not inscriptions that were at stake, but people’s relationships with places vii PREFACE in the production of a sense of place and belonging. We thus decided to redirect the book somewhat, to focus less on the fixed landmark and more on the humanization of landscapes, on the process of social and sensual anchorage in place. The book’s new direction echoed more closely our intellectual interests and curiosities. We have followed a number of conventions in the following pages. For one, we write of the nonwritten past as “pre-History” rather than “prehistory.” We do this as an attempt to avoid the evolutionary loadedness of the notion of prehistory (while at the same time being well aware of the history of the terms prehistory /prehistory, as influentially used in particular by John Lubbock and DanielWilson during the midto late nineteenth century). Following Paul Taçon and Christopher Chippindale ’s lead (1998, An archaeology of rock-art through informed methods and formal methods, 1–10 in The Archaeology of Rock-Art, edited by C. Chippindale and P. S. C. Taçon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), we hyphenate “rock-art” to distinguish such practices from the Western artistic program, which is closely tied to a market economy. We also sometimes refer to radiocarbon dates and sometimes to calibrated ages. Wherever radiocarbon dates are presented, they are listed as “years B.P.”; calibrated ages are presented as “years ago.” We use the convention C.E. (Common Era = A.D.) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era = B.C.), in acknowledgment of the widespread use of the Western calendar by people of all faiths. There are many people who made this book possible . First and foremost we thank the authors themselves for producing what we think is a wonderful set of stimulating essays.Thanks also to the University of Hawai‘i Press, and in particular our editor, Pamela Kelley, and copyeditor, Eileen D’Araujo, for their patience and assistance in seeing this book through. Nick Dolby, Colin Hope, Marcia Langton, Ian McNiven, David Mercer, Mariastella Pulvirenti, Lynette Russell, and Sallie Yea read and commented on drafts of various chapters, and two anonymous referees read the entire manuscript—a big thank you to all. Many thanks also to Gary Swinton for drafting most of the figures; Colin Hope for technical advice; the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University, under whose auspices the volume was edited; Monash University for a Logan Fellowship to B.D.; and Bill Harney and The Wardaman Aboriginal Corporation for permission to reproduce the cover photograph. viii Preface ...