Contested landscapes : movement, exile and place ; [World Archaeological Congress ... Cape Town, South Africa

Landscapes are not just backdrops to human action; people make them and are made by them. How people understand and engage with their material world depends upon particularities of time and place. These understandings are dynamic, variable, contradictory and open-ended. Landscapes are thus always evolving and are often volatile and contested. They are also always on the move - people may or may not be rooted, but they have 'legs'. From prehistoric times onwards people have travelled, but the process of people-on-the-move - as tourists, or on global business, as migrant workers or political or economic refugees - has vastly accelerated.How and why do people who share the same landscape have different and often violently opposed ways of understanding its significance? How do people-on-the-move make sense of the unfamiliar? How do they create a sense of place? How do they rework the memories of places left behind? There is nothing easeful about the landscapes discussed in this book, which are often harsh-edged and troubled both socially and politically. The contributors tackle contested notions of landscape to explain the key role it plays in creating identity and shaping human behaviour.This landmark study offers an important contribution towards an understanding of the complexity of landscape. The Shadow Of The Sacred Rock: Contrasting Discourses Of Place Under The Acropolis / Roxane Caftanzoglou -- Matter And Memory In The Landscapes Of Conflict: The Western Front 1914-1999 / Nicholas J. Sanders -- Contested Landscapes In Inner Mongolia: Walls And Cairns / Caroline Humphrey -- Negotiating The River: Cultural Tributaries In Far North Queensland / Veronica Strong -- Crannogs: Places Of Resistance In The Contested Landscapes Of Early Modern Ireland / Aidan O'sullivan -- Landscapes Of Punishment And Resistance: A Female Convict Settlement In Tasmania, Australia / Eleanor Conlin Casella --cultural Keepers, Cultural Brokers: The Landscape Of Women And Children-- A Case Study Of The Town Dahab In South Sinai / Heba Aziz -- Whose New Forest? Making Place On The Urban/rural Fringe / Andrew Garner -- The Political Economy Of Landscape: Conflict And Value In A Prehistoric Landscape In The Republic Of Ireland-- Ways Of Telling / Maggie Ronayne -- Bringing Contemporary Baggage To Neolithic Landscapes / Gabriel Cooney -- Landscape And Commerce: Creating Contexts For The Exercise Of Power / Penelope Harvey -- Pilgrimage And Politics In The Desert Of Rajasthan / Marzia Balzani --landscapes Of Separation: Reflections On The Symbolism Of By-pass Roads In Palestine / Tom Selwyn -- Rites Of Passage: Travel And The Materiality Of Vision At The Cape Of Good Hope / Jessica Dubow -- Landscapes, Fear And Land Loss On The Nineteenth-century South African Colonial Frontier / Margot Winer -- Places Of Longing And Belonging: Memories Of The Group Area Proclamation Of A South African Fi Edited By Barbara Bender And Margot Winer. Proceedings Of A Landscape Session At The World Archaeological Congress Held Cape Town, South Africa 1999. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Landscapes are not just backdrops to human action; people make them and are made by them. How people understand and engage with their material world depends upon particularities of time and place. These understandings are dynamic, variable, contradictory and open-ended. Landscapes are thus always evolving and are often volatile and contested. They are also always on the move - people may or may not be rooted, but they have'legs'. From prehistoric times onwards people have travelled, but the process of people-on-the-move - as tourists, or on global business, as migrant workers or political or economic refugees - has vastly accelerated. How and why do people who share the same landscape have different and often violently opposed ways of understanding its significance? How do people-on-the-move make sense of the unfamiliar? How do they create a sense of place? How do they rework the memories of places left behind? There is nothing easeful about the landscapes discussed in this book, which are often harsh-edged and troubled both socially and politically. The contributors tackle contested notions of landscape to explain the key role it plays in creating identity and shaping human behaviour. This landmark study offers an important contribution towards an understanding of the complexity of landscape.