Life in the weather-world: examining an eighteenth-century ‘ecological perspective’

Abstract

Within archaeology, discussions on climate are usually framed in the broad scale and long term, but by using diaries as rich sources on local environmental and landscape history, it is possible to develop archaeological insights into climate predicated on the everyday human experience of living in the landscape. This article presents a case study of two Quaker diarists, who farmed on the edge of the Lake District in north-west England during the eighteenth century. One of these diarists, Elihu Robinson, had a world view that linked social, natural and religious spheres of action with his compassionate and deeply felt faith. Arguably, this is an example of a Quaker ‘ecological perspective’ which contributed to an eighteenth-century environmental ethic. By thinking in terms of Tim Ingold’s weather-world, it is possible to see how this perspective emerged in relation to the diarists’ interactions with weather and landscape

Weather Landscapes and Archaeology: Material Weathering Practices and Tangible Climates

“…In the UK, eighteenth and nineteenth century diarists benchmarked droughts, floods or other unusual weather against previous such occurrences in their areas (as do many other communities using oral histories (e.g. Strauss & Orlove, 2003); floods regularly receive markers along riverbanks to mark their recurrence and severity, while places and folklore serve as mechanisms to memorialise, reproduce and normalise weather (Endfield, 2019;Hall & Endfield, 2016;Pillatt, 2016). Like climate, weather has a past and it tends to be so familiar to and intimately associated with the identities, histories, and places of local communities that it becomes a component of these themes (Vannini et al, 2012).…”

“…Shamans could produce socially desirable benefits, and abundant rains or lack thereof was linked to good/bad deeds and rulership (Challis et al, 2008;Kinahan, 1999;Schoeman, 2009;. Pillatt (2016;, with a focus on Ingold (2007)'s ‗weather world', has used historical diaries and climate to explore weather as a material condition of the landscape and an integral part of how people viewed and used the landscape in Cumbria in the UK. This work highlights how weather changes material realities for people, and how people's understanding of climate is embedded in their sense of identity and community and is accumulated through experiences of weather.…”

Weathering Climate Change in Archaeology: Conceptual Challenges and an East African Case Study

“…The potential of including weather in archaeological analyses is especially high in regions where weather has a strong impact on seasonal activities, where climate change is particularly strongly felt (e.g. the Arctic circle (Dodds & Nuttall 2019; Hastrup 2009; Turner & Clifton 2009)), or in areas and periods where writing diaries was popular and necessary, as in Early Modern Europe (Adamson 2015; Pillatt 2016), or when routinely recorded, as in ship logbooks (e.g. García-Herrera et al 2018; Nash et al 2015; Wheeler & García-Herrera 2008) and at European mission stations (e.g.…”

Break in the Clouds

“…And yet the landscape and its history is one of connections. The historical diaries of local farmers Isaac Fletcher (Winchester 1994) and Elihu Robinson present unique, first-hand perspectives on the relationships between farming and weather during the eighteenth century (Pillatt 2012(Pillatt , 2012a(Pillatt , 2016. Their regular discussions of the weather, its impact on their lives, and its integration within their Quaker faith, demonstrate deep physical and philosophical connections with the land and environment at a time when the country was rocked by a series of geopolitical, environmental and economic crises.…”