Cltural landscapes and ecology, 1995–96: of oecumenics and nature(s)

Abstract

This report is the first of three in a survey of recent work by geographers and their counterparts on cultural landscapes and ecology. Depending on definition and direction these rubrics could, or perhaps should, encompass much of what is being done by cultural geographers as well as those working on questions of human±environment or society±nature relations beyond the bounds of the categories culture and landscape. My core concern here, however, will be to present and comment on studies of cultural landscapes informed by ecological methods and perspectives. Much of this production falls within the purview of cultural ecology or its offshoots such as political ecology and various cognate fields including historical ecology, environmental history, landscape archaeology and landscape ecology. If this prospectus is less than ecumenical, it should still allow for looking at a wide range of material coming out of various traditions, camps and exploratory ventures that lay claims to these terms' terrain. Given that the topics`cultural landscapes and ecology' (in tandem) have not been previously featured in these progress reports, a bit of mapping of what has come before might be useful. It will also require mentioning some publications prior to 1995 to set the stage for the past two years. In the first annual volume of Progress in Geography (1969±76), precursor to its current bifurcation along human and physical lines, Harold Brookfield (1969) wrote on`The environment as perceived'. Cultural ecology per se received scant mention, and cultural landscape none at all. During this period Brookfield (1964) was concerned to move beyond the Berkeley school's fielding of cultural landscape studies and on to more systemic and nomothetic pursuits. In the third volume O'Riordan (1971) reported on`Environmental management', a category that has enjoyed some 17 surveys since 1977 under the same and variant titles in Progress in Human Geography. A sampling of titles and authors includes:`Natural resources and their management' * c Arnold 1998 0309±1325(98)PH186PR

Developing Landscape Historical Ecologies in Eastern Africa: An Outline of Current Research and Potential Future Directions

“…A further key defining aspect of much historical ecology is that while attention is given to identifying and understanding the specific factors that have shaped the historical trajectories of a landscape in terms of its human uses and biophysical characteristics, assessing how current practices and circumstances are likely to be impacted and shaped by future changes, whether anthropogenic or natural, is equally important. The concept is thus well suited to examine the triad 'landscape', 'culture' and 'ecology' (see Mathewson 1998), as has been well illustrated in several recent studies of the evolution of European (for example Crumley and Marquardt 1987;Van Andel et al 1990;Butzer 2005;Van der Leeuw et al 2005) and South American Developing Landscape Historical Ecologies in Eastern Africa 303 (for example Stahl 2000;Heckenberger et al 2003;Erickson 2006) landscapes that have drawn extensively on archaeological sources.…”

‘Sustainability’ in ecological economics, ecology and livelihoods: a review

“…First, writers aligning themselves with the 'postmodern' or 'cultural' turn in human geography are addressing nature-society relations in ways that interrogate sustainability discourses and projects. 17 There is a substantial and growing literature reviewing geographical and related work on diverse representations of the concept of nature, its social construction and the theoretical and political implications of culturally filtered understandings of nature (Castree, 1995;Demeritt, 1994;Gandy, 1996;Olwig, 1996;Gerber, 1997;Castree and Braun, 1998;Mathewson, 1998). At the risk of oversimplifying, the central focus of much of this work is on how ideas of nature are constantly reformulated, signified and used by different social agents to, on one hand, bolster claims of knowledge and power over other agents and attendant ecosystems or, on the other, defend access to and control over resources in the face of others' knowledge and power claims.…”

Colonialism and Landscape in the Americas: Material/Conceptual Transformations and Continuing Consequences

“…If even a preliminary plan for such a project existed, some progress might be apparent under the rubrics of cultural or political geography, of cultural or political ecology. None is apparent, neither progress nor even preliminary plan (Duncan 1993(Duncan , 1994(Duncan , 1995Smith 1994;Mathewson 1998Mathewson , 1999. This brief essay, therefore, can be no more than a proposal for filling a vast yet compelling theoretical lacuna.…”