Toward an Understanding of Borderland Processes

Abstract

Although the study of frontiers is of fundamental importance to a variety of academic fields and subdisciplines, few researchers have proposed terminology, models or conceptual frameworks that allow a cross-disciplinary supra-regional comparison of frontier dynamics. In this paper I take three steps toward rectifying this situation. First, I propose a simplified lexicon that is widely applicable across disciplinary, temporal and regional divides. This lexicon is meant to be a starting point in defining boundary situations. Second, lay out a model, called the “continuum of boundary dynamics.” This model is meant to aid researchers in characterizing various types of boundary situations. And third, propose a model, called the “borderland matrix” with which to visualize the dynamic interaction between different categories of boundaries. This model is meant to aid researchers in isolating processes that occur in borderlands. It is my position that only through systematic comparisons of boundary situations at various times and locations can we hope to understand the processes that take place in borderlands. By defining and characterizing boundary situations and then isolating the processes taking place there, I believe that we will come much closer to understanding the common and unique themes that make frontier studies a central interregional and interdisciplinary subject of study.

Modeling and testing polity boundaries in the Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico

“…81-82). Frontiers are better defined as ''zones of interaction'' that tend to be permeable and fluid to the very movements and interactions that borders prohibit (Parker, 2006;Venter, 2008, p. 82;Wells, 2005). The term frontier, however, invokes broader-scale processes such as imperialism (e.g., Algaze, 1993;Smith and Montiel, 2001;Venter, 2008;Wells, 2005) or the extent of world-systems processes (Frank and Gills, 1993;Hall, 1999;Hall and Chase-Dunn, 1993;Wallerstein, 1974).…”

“…I seek a method to characterize boundaries, determine the effect that they had on the shape of regional interactions, and the course of regional cultural evolution. These are the ''boundary processes'' discussed by Parker (2002Parker ( , 2006. Negotiations among political agents and between regimes and subjects are much more complicated than the identification of political boundaries will reveal.…”

“…Political boundaries in ancient states were dynamic and highly contested loci on the landscape (e.g., Feinman, 1994;Hare, 2004;Lightfoot and Martinez, 1995;Parker, 2006;Smith, 2004;Venter, 2008;Wells, 2005). A polity is ''a spatialized set of political practices dedicated to producing and reproducing authority in relationships between subjects and regimes (Smith, 2004, p. 148)''.…”

Multiply Situated Strategies? Multi-Sited Ethnography and Archeology

“…The multi-sited idea does not necessarily demand that we abandon or detach ourselves from these locale-based roots; but it does encourage us to also push beyond locales as we follow the paths of relations that we trace. Recent debates in landscape archeology on boundaries, frontiers, inhabitation, and fragmentation could provide more substance for expanding upon the theoretical potential of multi-sited relations (Parker 2006;Thomas 2008;Barrett 1999;Chapman 2008).…”

Agency and politics in hunter-gatherer territory formation

“…The landscape ethos tends to both sustain tradition and change, sometimes dramatically, once territorial identities emerge as god-given rights to land (Zedeño et al, 2009, Figure 1). Although examples of territorial blueprints have been discussed at length in the literature of ancient state formation and imperial expansion (e.g., Bintliff, 1999;Mantha, 2009;Parker, 2006;Schortman and Urban, 1992), they have also been found among prehistoric and historic hunters (e.g., Oetelaar and Oetelaar, 2006;Zedeño and Stoffle, 2003;Zvelebil, 1997).…”