ANTHROPOLOGY Landscapes, Place and Culture

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1 University of Northern British Columbia Winter 2011 Wed. 6:30pm - 9:20 pm Dr. Angèle Smith Rm ANTHROPOLOGY Landscapes, Place and Culture "...the landscape is thoroughly humanised. It is therefore imbued with cultural meaning, being the concrete expression of states of mind, now and in the past, and just like a book or a parchment much written upon and written over, its interpretation awaits the discerning reader." (Patrick J. O'Connor 1992, Some Guides to the Irish Scene, p. 8). How to Contact Me: Phone Messages: smitha1@unbc.ca (note: that is #1) Office: #3057 Admin Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-3:00pm If you need to talk with me briefly, please feel free to speak with me after any class. Course Description and Outline This course focuses on the theory of space and landscape as it relates to, and has significance in understanding, culture. By examining landscapes and culture through time, we will explore this theory in operation. The complexity of culture is represented in physical, mental and social landscapes. There is not one, but multiple, definitions of landscapes and this multiplicity is an important aspect of place and landscape theory, as well as of culture itself. Landscapes and cultures are not homogenous. Rather, both have great internal variability, and it is the contestation of competing expressions of variables that results in the changing processes of landscapes and culture. Landscapes and culture are perceived and understood in many different ways dependent on the individual viewer, and the historical and social context of that viewer. Thus landscapes and culture are embedded in time, history, memory and meaning. The different perceptions and understandings of landscapes and culture act together so that there are always multiple messages, and multiple meanings in process. Prerequisites: upper division standing or permission of the Instructor. Course Format: The structure of this course is organized around a variety of central themes to examine theories of space, place and landscape, and how these are produced by and help to produce social relations and social processes. These concepts and theories will be explored through lectures and discussions. 1

2 Although there will be some lecturing, much of the class will revolve around discussion generated from the readings and your own experiences and thoughts. You will be asked to lead the discussion of readings and ALL will be required to participate in active discussion and brain-storming of ideas. Course Requirements: Mid-term Test (in class) 20% (Feb. 23 rd ) Final Test (in exam period) 20% Paper Outline 5% (Feb 2 nd ) Paper Presentation 5% (March 30 th ) Term Paper 25% (March 30 th ) Leading Reading Discussions 15% In-class Participation & Attendance 10% There will be two tests (the first in class mid-term and the second during the final exam timetable). Each of these tests is worth 20% of your grade. A term paper (14-15 pages, double space, typewritten pages) will be worth 25%. You will be required to submit two page-long in-process outline, including your thesis statement and paper structure. This will be worth 5%. A paper presentation (5%) will be made the day you hand in the paper. More information will be provided. Students will take turns leading discussions based on readings. This, and active participation in these discussions will count for 25% of the course grade. Attendance will necessarily count towards your participation grade and will therefore be mandatory. If you miss more than 3 classes, you will get 0 out of 15. Attending only part of a class will not be counted as an attendance. Class begins at 6:30 sharp. Please be on time!! Instructors take a dim view of people who disrupt the class by arriving late or leaving early. If you cannot make these commitments you should probably not take this course. UNBC Policy: My policy regarding grades, religious holidays, academic honesty and other related business conforms to the University regulations (see Undergraduate Calendar ). Under extreme circumstances and given the appropriate documentation, I will consider extensions or make-up tests, but only if this is arranged in a timely fashion BEFORE the due date or test date. Written assignments must be submitted on time. Late papers will be marked down by 10% each day after they are due (including weekends); assignments more than seven days late will not be accepted (i.e., they will be counted as an F). Failure to lead your assigned discussion will also result in an F (i.e., zero points). Each student is responsible for knowing when work is due, and when and where the exams will be held. If you fail in this responsibility it will result in an F (zero points). If you have special medical or compassionate circumstances you MUST have official 2

3 documentation and you MUST make arrangements with me PRIOR to the due date to show me that you have been working on assignments. PLAGIARISM and/or INCORRECT REFERENCING of material will result in an F (zero points) or worse. It is your responsibility to educate yourself in these matters (see Learning Skills Center website if you are not sure). If there are students in this course who, because of a disability, may have a need for special academic accommodations, please come and discuss this with me, or contact Disability Services located in room , Teaching & Learning Centre. Required Reading: The readings are available at the Library Reserve. You will be responsible for completing the readings for the class for which they are assigned. There will be no textbook assigned because of the depth, range and uniqueness of the course material we will cover. The Course Outline - Weekly Topics and Assignments: Week 1 Jan. 5 th : Introduction and Course Overview Lewis, P Axioms for Reading the Landscape in The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. (eds.) D.W. Meinig. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp Week 2 Jan. 12 th : Spaces, Places and Landscapes -- Concepts and History of Study Keller, C The Theoretical Aspects of Landscape Study in Decoding the Landscape. (ed.) Timothy Collins. Centre for Landscape Studies, Social Sciences Research Centre, University College Galway, Ireland. pp Meinig, D.W The Beholdhing Eye in The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. (eds.) D.W. Meinig. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp Week 3 Jan. 19 th : Place and Identity -- Belonging and Home Lovell, N Introduction: Belonging in need of emplacement? in Locality and Belonging. (ed.) Nadia Lovell. Routledge, London. pp

4 Downs, R. and Stea, D Senses of Place in Maps in Minds: Reflections on Cognitive Mapping. Harper & Row Publishers, New York. pp Platt, K Places of Experience and the Experience of Place in The Longing for Home. (ed.) L.S. Rouner. Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame. pp Week 4 Jan. 26 th : Space and Social Relations -- Process and Movement De Certeau, M Spatial Stories in The Practice of Everyday Life, U. of California Press, Berkeley. pp Tilley, C Space, Place, Landscape and Perception: Phenomenological Perspectives in A Phenomenology of Landscape: Place, Paths and Monuments. Berg, Oxford. pp Bender, B Introduction in Contested Landscapes: Movement, Exile and Place. (eds.) B. Bender and M. Winer. Berg, Oxford. pp Week 5 Feb. 2 nd : PAPER OUTLINES DUE (5%) Temporality of Landscape Soja, E Reassertions: Towards a Spatialized Ontology pp , in Postmodern Geographies. Verso, London. Ingold, T The temporality of Landscape World Archaeology: Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society. Routledge, London, pp RECOMMENDED: Harvey, D Conditions of Postmodernity. Ch. 12, 13, 14 Blackwell, Oxford. pp Week 6 Feb. 9 th : Contested Places and Sacred Landscapes Ideology Bender, B Contested Landscapes: Medieval to Present Day in Stonehenge: Making Space. Berg, Oxford. pp

5 Chidester, D. and Linenthal, E Introduction in American Sacred Space. (eds.) David Chidester and Edward Linenthal. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. pp Smith, Claire 1999 Ancestors, place and people: social landscapes in Aboriginal Australia in The Archaeology and Anthropology of Landscape: Shaping your landscape. (eds.) Peter Ucko and Robert Layton. Routledge, London. pp Week 7 Feb. 16 th : OFF -- Winter Break Week 8 Feb. 23 rd : MIDTERM TEST (20%) Week 9 March 2 nd : Landscape Representation -- Maps Binnema, T How Does a Map Mean?: Old Swan s Map of 1801 and the Blackfoot World in From Rupert s Land to Canada. (eds.) Theodore Binnema, Gerhard Ens, and R. C. MacLeod. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton. pp Pickles, John 1992 Texts, Hermeneutics and Propaganda Maps in Writing Worlds: Discourse, text and metaphor in the representation of landscape. (eds.) Trevor J. Barnes and James Duncan. Routledge, London. pp Smith, A Landscape Representation: Place and Identity in Nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey Maps of Ireland in Landscape, Memory and History: Anthropological Perspectives. (eds.) Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern. Pluto Press, London. pp Week 10 March 9 th : Memory, History, Oral Tradition Basso, Keith 1990 Speaking with Names : Language and Landscape Among the Western Apache in Western Apache Language and Culture. University of Arizona Press, Tuscon. pp Lelong, Olivia 2008 New Places for Old: The Reinhabitation of Cleared Landscapes in Northern Scotland in Landscapes of Clearance: Archaeological and Anthropological 5

6 Perspectives, (eds.) A. Smith and A. Gazin-Schwartz. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek. pp Marquardt, William and Crumley, Carole 1987 Feux Celtiques: Burgundian Festival as Performance and Process in Regional Dynamics: Burgundian Landscapes in Historical Perspectives (eds.) Carole Crumley and William Marquardt. Academic Press, New York. pp Week 11 March 16 th : Gendered Space Bondi, Liz 1990 Feminism, Postmodernism, and Geography: Space for Women? Antipode 22:2, pp Nash, Catherine 1997 Embodied Irishness: Gender, sexuality and Irish identities in In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography. Routledge, London. pp (Electronic version found at: Price-Chalita, Patricia 1994 Spatial Metaphor and the Politics of Empowerment: Mapping a place for Feminism and Postmodernism in Geography? Antipode 26:3, pp Week 12 March 23 rd : Urban vs. Wilderness Emerson, Ralph Waldo 1991 Introduction and Ch. 1 in Nature. Beacon Press, Boston. pp Low, S. and McDonogh, G Introduction to Remapping the City: Place, Order and Ideology American Anthropologist 103(1), pp (Electronic version found at: Williams, Raymond 1993 Town and Country in The Country and the City. Hogarth Press, London pp Rotenberg, R Metropolitanism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Metropoles. American Anthropologist 103(1), pp (Electronic version found at: 6

7 RECOMMENDED Hayden, Dolores 1998 Urban Landscape History: The sense of place and the politics of space pp Week 13 March 30 th : TERM PAPERS DUE (25%) PAPER PRESENTATIONS (5%) Week 14 April 6 th -- LAST DAY Place-less-ness in the Post-Colonial Context Keith, M. and Pile, S Introduction: The Politics of Place in Place and the Politics of Identity. (eds. Michael Keith and Steve Pile. Routledge, London. pp Smith, N Homeless/ global: Scaling Places in Mapping the Futures: Local cultures, global change. (eds.) Jon Bird, et. al. Routledge, London. pp (Electronic version found at: Soja, E. and Hooper, B The Spaces that Difference Makes in Place and the Politics of Identity. (eds. Michael Keith and Steve Pile. Routledge, London. pp

Time and Place Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:10-11:00 Spaulding 230 Lab: Mondays 1:10-4:00 James Hall G45

Time and Place Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:10-11:00 Spaulding 230 Lab: Mondays 1:10-4:00 James Hall G45 Course Syllabus NR 603: Landscape Ecology Fall 2014 Instructor Dr. Rebecca J. Rowe Assistant Professor, NREN Ph: 862-2810; email: rebecca.rowe@unh.edu Office: James Hall 136 Office hours: W: 11-1, or by