An Archaeology of Landscapes: Perspectives and Directions
P1: GFU/GDB/GDX/LMD/GCX P2: GCR Journal of Archaeological Research [jar] PP078-295745 April 20, 2001 8:23 Style file version Nov. 19th, 1999 Journal of Archaeological Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2001 An Archaeology of Landscapes: Perspectives and Directions Kurt F. Anschuetz,1,4 Richard H. Wilshusen,2 and Cherie L. Scheick3 This review calls for the definition of a landscape approach in archaeology. After tracing the development of the landscape idea over its history in the social sciences and examining the compatibility between this concept and traditional archaeolog- ical practice, we suggest that archaeology is particularly well suited among the social sciences for defining and applying a landscape approach. If archaeologists are to use the landscape paradigm as a “pattern which connects” human behavior with particular places and times, however, we need a common terminology and methodology to build a construct paradigm. We suggest that settlement ecology, ritual landscapes, and ethnic landscapes will contribute toward the definition of such a broadly encompassing paradigm that also will facilitate dialogue between archaeologists and traditional communities. KEY WORDS: landscape; culture; paradigm; epistemology. INTRODUCTION The intellectual foundations of contemporary landscape approaches in ar- chaeology may be traced back to at least the 1920s (Stoddard and Zubrow, 1999, p. 686; discussed later). Despite their historical depth in the discipline’s develop- ment, until recently landscape approaches largely were subsumed within archae- ological inquiry to provide a backdrop against which material traces were plotted and evaluated (Knapp and Ashmore, 1999). Now, as evident from a review of the previous decade of Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting Abstracts, 1Rio Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504- 8617.
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