Landscapes of Movement

by Snead, James E.; Erickson, Clark L.; Darling, J. Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781934536131
• ISBN10: 193453613X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-23
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Museum of

Summary

Landscapes of Movementoriginates from the premise that trails, paths, and roads are the physical manifestation of human movement through the landscape and are central to an understanding of that movement. The study of these features connects with many intellectual domains, engaging history, geography, environmental studies, and, in particular, anthropology and archaeology. These diverse fields together provide not only a better understanding of infrastructure but also social, political, and economic organization, cultural expressions of patterned movement, and the ways in which trails, paths, and roads reflect a culture's traditional knowledge, worldview, memory, and identity. The contributors toLandscapes of Movementdocument these routes across different times and cultures, from those made by hunter-gatherers in the Great Basin of North America to causeways in the Bolivian Amazon to Bronze Age towns in the Near East, examined through aerial and satellite photography, surface survey, historic records, and archaeological excavation. The essays consider many factors in the development and use of trails, paths, and roads, including labor, technology, terrain characteristics, landscape features, access, and ownership. Diverse scales of movement are also addressed, ranging from paths between home and fields to roads used for long-distance journeying. Overall, the book makes the case for the centrality of paths, trails, and roads as an organizing element of human lives throughout history.

Author Biography

James E. Snead is Associate Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University. Clark L. Erickson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Curator of the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. J. Andrew Darling is Coordinator of the Cultural Resource Management Program at the Gila River Indian Community.

Table of Contents

Figures	p. vii
Tables	p. xii
Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvi
Making Human Space: The Archaeology of Trails, Paths, and Roads	p. 1
Kukhepya; Searching for Hopi Trails	p. 20
Trails of Tradition: Movement, Meaning, and Place	p. 42
O'odham Trails and the Archaeology of Space	p. 61
Reconstructing Southern Paiute-Chemehuevi Trails in the Mojave Desert of Southern Nevada and California: Ethnographic Perspectives from the 1930s	p. 84
From Path to Myth: Journeys and the Naturalization of Territorial Identity along the Missouri River	p. 106
A Road by Any Other Name: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Maya Language and Thought	p. 133
When the Construction of Meaning Preceded the Meaning of Construction: From Footpaths to Monumental Entrances in Ancient Costa Rica	p. 158
Emergent Landscapes of Movement in Early Bronze Age Northern Mesopotamia	p. 180
Agency, Causeways, Canals, and the Landscapes of Everyday Life in the Bolivian Amazon	p. 204
Precolumbian Causeways and Canals as Landesque Capital	p. 232
Routes through the Landscape: A Comparative Approach	p. 253
Appendices
Coding of the Cases of Paths, Trails, and Roads Discussed in the Conference	p. 271
Comparative Variables for Trails, Paths, and Roads	p. 275
References	p. 312
Contributors	p. 363
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