Rethinking Archaeological Practice and Representations of Space and Time (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 2019
For some time now, the field of Spatial Humanities has acknowledged the need for a system capable of the spatial exploration of historical and archaeological phenomena beyond Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This idea comes from the need to analyse holistically spatial information, including that which is not geographic (i.e. vague, symbolic and imaginary space). In addition, this need becomes more apparent when dealing with traditions that do not conform to the European/Cartesian conception of space in which GIS is rooted. This article, explores the use of Qualitative Spatial Representation (QSR) and Semantic Triples as possible alternative means to model complex and diverse expressions of spatial information, including social and symbolic conceptions in 16 th century Mexican maps. Using as case study the map from the region of Atengo-Misquiahuala (Hidalgo) which combine the Mesoamerican and European traditions, we explore how these approaches might open new venues of research, potentially shedding light to long discussed and problematic Mesoamerican spatial categories. Focusing on a contained and partial example, we examine from a theoretical perspective and as a starting point, the possible future implementation of these approaches for historical and archaeological research.
The Ambivalence of Maps: A Historical Perspective on Sensing and Representing Space in Mesoamerica
2016
Imaging and spatial analysis technologies are revolutionizing archaeological methods and archaeologists' perceptions of space. Rather than view these innovations as inevitable refinements and expansions of the archaeological toolkit, it is useful to critically assess their impacts on theory and practice. In this chapter, we consider what spatial data—data that appear to represent an objective reality— tell us about past and present human experiences of the physical world in terms of abstraction, temporality, and power. We draw on archaeological cases from Mesoamerica to illustrate how these subjective perspectives on space are revealed through technological innovations and how historical and current efforts to map this region play out in the political sphere.
Archaeologists have tended to overemphasize spatial and temporal boundaries between social groups at the expense of crosscutting and historical links. This bias is rooted in ethnographic conceptions of cultural identity and fails to make use of the time depth that is archaeology's primary advantage in the study of human behavior. An emphasis on synchronic, bounded spatial units like culture areas has obscured diachronic dimensions of identity, especially linear and historical constructs that are common among many indigenous groups. Incorporating these indigenous perspectives into archaeological research is a productive means of advancing archaeological theory and practice regarding identity. A case study from the American Southwest illustrates this approach.
Making Deep Maps. Foundations, Approaches, and Methods, 2021
Deep mapping has emerged as a means of reflecting about and contesting hegemonic forms of spatial understanding. The critical analysis of the epistemological roots of technologies such as Geographic Information Systems, and the western/Cartesian/Euclidean lens that they impose, have been at the core of the arguments to develop a Spatial Information System that might have a strong basis in humanities studies and which should consider, in a holistic way, the conceptual complexity of space in wide variety of cultural contexts. Deep maps acknowledge this complexity. Interestingly, forms of “deep mapping” have existed for millennia. Using a decolonial approach and analyzing maps from the sixteenth-century Relaciones Geográficas, we delve into the ways that Mesoamerican and colonial Indigenous societies conceived spatial and geographic depictions, analyze the complexity and connections of these with native cosmogony, and provide a reflection on the syncretic processes that stemmed from contact between Indigenous and European societies.
What is Time? Indigenous Conceptualizations of Time and the Geoweb
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Geospatial technologies have often been depicted as failing to take into consideration nonWestern ways of conceptualizing space and time (Nadasdy, 1999; Rundstrom, 1995; Turnbull, 2007). In this presentation, we offer a critical examination of the Geoweb by taking into consideration challenges presented by indigenous conceptualizations of place and time. More specifically, we compare how the concept of time is modeled in conventional geospatial ontologies to that of indigenous conceptualizations. First, we show that the conventional categorization of objects between endurants and perdurants might differ from indigenous conceptualizations. Second, we discuss how the conventional time-space cube might be incompatible within these traditional ways of representing and understanding time. The first author’s research is on how the Geoweb could be an effective tool to integrate future aspirations of an Indigenous community regarding the tenure and development of their land. Based on respec...
Situating Remote Sensing in Anthropological Archaeology. Archaeological Prospection 18:1-19.
Situating Remote Sensing in Anthropological Archaeology. Archaeological Prospection 18:1-19. , 2011
Productive applications of geophysics to anthropological questions in American archaeology necessarily involve specific research questionsoragendas.While only some anthropologicalquestions can beaddressed by shallowgeophysics, thesetechniquesprovideanopportunity toaddresssomeimportantquestionsthat arefundamental toarchaeology. One such agenda is the investigation of ‘persistent places’, which is rooted in anthropological inquiry andwhich canbeinvestigated, at least in part, by shallowgeophysical techniques.For the next stageinthe use of remote sensing thatgoesbeyondmereprospection, researchagendasmust beclearlylinkedwithbroader theoreticalconceptsofwhat weterminquiry-basedarchaeogeophysics.Specificallywith regardto theapplicationofgeophysicsto the studyofpersistent places, weproposefourcategoriesof research that relate tothemeaning, context andchangingfunctionof such places. These categories include: construction variation, continuity and discontinuity in the use of space, studying naturaland/orculturallandscapemodificationsover timeand space, and constanciesintheuse of spaceandarchitecture at the regional level. In order to illustrate these points, we provide examples fromsites in Mexico and the USAthat represent different time periods (2500 BC to AD 1000), adaptations (hunter^gatherers to intensive agriculturists), and levels of socio-political complexity (egalitarianto stratified societies).The use ofgeophysics at these persistent places contributes to our understanding of changes in the use of space and architecture through time.
Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data names: armstrong-fumero, fernando, editor. | Hoil gutierrez, Julio, editor. title: Legacies of space and intangible heritage : archaeology, ethnohistory, and the politics of cultural continuity in the americas / edited by fernando armstrong-fumero and Julio Hoil gutierrez. description: boulder : University press of colorado, [2017] | includes bibliographical references and index. identifiers: Lccn 2016056647| isbn 9781607325710 (cloth) | isbn 9781607326595 (pbk) | isbn 9781607325727 (ebook) subjects: LcsH: cultural landscapes-america-case studies. | cultural property-protectionamerica-case studies. | cultural property-america-Management-case studies. | Historic sites-conservation and restoration-america-case studies. | Historic sites-america-Management-case studies. classification: Lcc gf500 .L44 2017 | ddc 973-dc23 Lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056647 an electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open access isbn for the pdf version of this book is 978-1-60732-700-4; for the epUb version the open access isbn is 978-1-60732-720-2. More information about the initiative and links to the open-access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. front-cover photographs: taperinha plantation (top), cavern of the painted rock, Monte alegre (bottom), courtesy of anna c. roosevelt.
Paper presented at the 27th Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1994
The goals of spatial analysis in archaeology include identifying spatial patterning in material remains, and also identifying the underlying processes that structure the observed patterning. In central New Mexico, inter-regional travel and exchange has long been assumed from patterns of artifact distribution, but little work has been done to explain the meaning of such patterns. Here, a model of regional climate is used to distinguish different spatial dimensions of environmental variability, to assess the possible impact of variability on local groups, and to evaluate the probable success of cultural strategies (such as group mobility and exchange) in coping with variability. It is proposed that pithouse communities in the Salinas area could have coped with most environmental variability by maintaining access to foodstuffs within a “alternative resource area” approximately 40 to 50 km away, in the Sierra Blanca region. The model suggests, moreover, that interactions extending such distances would be quite commonplace, and that this scale of mobility and exchange, while not necessarily involving every member of society, would constitute the pattern of everyday life for prehistoric pithouse communities in this region. Attention to the structure of environmental variability thus provides some idea of the spatial scale at which observed social responses could have been most effective, the conditions under which these responses might fail, and the level of “stress” involved in their use--for both the individual and for the social system as a whole.