Introduction: Contested and Political Landscapes
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This book focuses on alternative definitions of landscape in archaeology, particularly those that explicitly address the conflicts, contestations, and political aspects of landscapes. This volume emphasises the non-static, dialogic nature of landscape within a community. It acknowledges how different communities’ construction and relationship with the landscape can lead to tensions and even violence with other groups. It highlights the relevance of considering movement, borders, and conflict as a source for understanding how people create their landscapes and how they reshape them during political conflicts. For example, in contexts like colonisation and war, people are forced to adapt to new politics and hierarchies as their personal and communal understanding of the world is deeply transformed. This is visible today as political tensions constantly reshape local and global landscapes. Understanding the creation and contestation of landscapes in the past is essential for understanding political, economic, and cultural manifestations in the present to better organise ourselves for a truly integrative future.
Source: Routledge eBooks
Author: Eduardo Herrera Malatesta
Institution: Leiden University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4406884392