Human stewardship or ruining cultural landscapes of the ancient Tula wells, southern Ethiopia (original) (raw)
Related papers
2018
This paper takes enclosure and commodification processes of “nature” one step beyond a political economy perspective conceptualising them from ontological notions of nature-culture relations. Taking the case of enclosure for large-scale commercial agriculture schemes and a game reserve in northeastern Ethiopia, the paper argues that enclosure and nature commodification are part of neoliberal environmental governance that has been built on the notion of subduing nature and subaltern groups into the power of capitalism. More specifically, while the economic and political dimensions of these processes are salient, the ontological notions of the natureculture dualism has been invoked by states in their justification of expropriating pastoralist lands, thus nullifying indigenous people’s claim to ancestral homelands. The data for this paper was collected from 2013 to 2016 through ethnographic fieldwork, mainly conducted by the authors. The findings show oscillating perceptions of humanen...
Changing Landscapes - Changing Societies? An Anthropological Perspective
In this article I suggest that Neolithization in the Near East was a long-term, dialectical process between environmental and cultural changes – a process of ‘path-dependency’. I show that a different perception of landscapes did not cause the adoption of agriculture, but rather that at the beginning of the Holocene traditional hunter-gatherers’ behaviour patterns and preferences led to the durable adoption of a sedentary way of life. In these villages new social rules became necessary which then led in turn to a completely new structuring of the landscape. I argue that, according to an ethno-archaeological model, general reciprocity – the principle of sharing with other people and groups – had to be restricted before cultivation could be adopted permanently. Group identities then had to be intensified by visible symbols and territorial markers. The communal buildings of the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic and intensified ritual practices could thus be interpreted as means to counteract the strains caused by the new social order.
Environment Degradation and Nature’s Reclamation: A Study of Yiro Abari’s in the Absence of Man
English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies
The sermon of eco-activists for long has been about conservation of the flora and fauna, particularly the threatened and endangered species in order to sustain the steady cycle of the ecosystem. However, industrial and economic activities by humans have resulted in the obstruction of the ecosystemic chain. Many Western writers have imposed upon themselves the responsibility of promoting biological and environmental conservation through their art. However, the call for global environmental preservation has been answered weakly by black African writers and critics. This is so because the African writer has been preoccupied with issues of colonialism and corruption. YiroAbari’s In the Absence of Man is set in Jos, the capital of Plateau State of Nigeria. A city that has witnessed massive tin mining activities from the dawn of the 20th century which left vast ponds and infertile lands in the wake of mining. This paper explores the details of the wasted lands due to mining activities. It...
This thesis describes two field seasons of research around the historic church of Gännäta Maryam in the western highlands of Ethiopia, and the subsequent analysis of the landscape and archaeological remains recovered there. Gännäta Maryam Church was an important royal church from the 13th century onward. Though the archaeological landscape around the church likely possessed a wealth of information on the role of royal churches in medieval Ethiopian society, natural and anthropogenic landscape formation processes have greatly disturbed the archaeological integrity of the region, leaving few archaeological contexts intact. This thesis examines the Gännäta Maryam study area as a palimpsest landscape where centuries of human activity and landscape evolution have successively and cumulatively left their signatures on the terrain. Using principals and methods from behavioral archaeology and geoarchaeology, I analyze and describe the past and ongoing human occupation and landscape formation processes at Gännäta Maryam in order to understand how the archaeological record came to its present state. In doing so, I argue we can trace the processes of archaeological site formation, thereby achieving a more accurate interpretation of the archaeological landscape in spite of its poor preservation. In broader terms, this project provides a case study on archaeological site formation processes in the Ethiopian highlands whose lessons and methods can improve future research and interpretation in disturbed sites and archaeological landscapes across the highlands.
Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 2023
Prima facie, our field-site, the piedmont-scrublands of Ramanadi Basin, Tamirabarani productive landscape, in the South Indian peninsula, is a Historical Irrigated Landscape (HIL). However, here, we neither reiterate our field-site as a HIL in need of site-specific solutions, nor do we argue for evermore (sub)categories to manage such diverse heritage. Rather we draw on our interdisciplinary fieldwork and argue that the polysemic nature of landscapes and their components are part of their complex contextual lived realities. Continuing to see the multiple meanings and contestations exclusively as ‘wicked problems’ that impinge on practice and policy would be a disservice to the discipline’s well-documented histories of learning through praxis. An ethnographic approach enriched by archival and cartographic studies, which we developed over successive field engagements, enabled us to foreground the (in)adequacies of current heritage conservation-management models, as analytic and heuristic, and present a more progressive model for heritage conservation-management pedagogy.
Environment and History, 1999
In semi-arid Africa, environmental change continues to be debated, focusing particularly on the status and significance of land degradation and on local versus scientific knowledge claims. This paper suggests an approach for using different types of data sources, and for bringing together understandings of ecosystem dynamics and of people's interaction with the environment, and thereby achieving 'closure' in a highly contested terrain. The environmental and socioeconomic history of a village in northeastern Botswana is investigated using oral histories of villagers, aerial photographs (1964 and 1988), and official records. At first, descriptions of the environment appear confusing and contradictory, and at odds with official records. Rainfall is the focal point around which most explanations of environmental change turn. Here scientists find no longterm change, while villagers perceive a decline. Overstocking has been a main concern for policymakers throughout this century, while villagers do not see this as a problem. These, and ensuing contradictory perceptions, are partly resolved by identifying the main components linking the wider society to the local and to the environment, and by seeking a shared meaning between local and official versions, as well as between different local versions, of environmental change. We found, instead of contradiction, a striking convergence between, on the one hand, recent scientific understanding of the unpredictability and complexity of semi-arid dynamics and, on the other hand, the description and explanation of change offered by villagers themselves. Events Trends Cycles Macroeconomic and political factors Colonialism Population increase Independence Trade argeements Livelihood strategies Migration Farming investments Education Wage income