Anthropology Of Landscape

Hirsch, E. 1995. “Introduction, Landscape: between place and space” in Hirsch, E. (ed.) The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press.

Anth411 reading notes and reflections:
This chapter explores the idea of landscape in an anthropological construct. Hirsch aims to move away from the western ideals of understanding of landscape, and deconstruct it in an attempt to understand the local interoperation of landscape to prove it is part of a cultural process. Landscape has been used as a “standard framing device” (p1) by those looking from the outside in across anthropological history. Hirsch is looking to explore the landscape through the cultural understandings of the local people. (p1-5)

This was an era where sociology was emerging. Hirsch using Sauer’s work argued that human interaction with the natural landscape created a ‘cultural landscape’. Hirsch uses Gow ‘s (1994) chapter on Amazonian Peru to demonstrate how a cultural landscape develops. The Piro people of Peru use rotational crops to feed their people and share their food among the tribe. When they look at the land it represents kinship structures and social ties. The notion of space and place are entwined in meaning by emphasising the reality but also looking to the potentiality of the place thus creating a ‘space’.

To counter balance Cartesianism Hirsch puts forward Vico’s argument of ‘sensory topics’ which places imagery of shared identities and interactions at the heart of the landscape. The relationship between the physical and the metaphorical whilst very separate can be united. Only when the physical place or subject oriented (‘indexical’) place can be examined then the metaphorical space, non-subject orientated (‘non-indexical’) can begin to be understood (Gell, 1985). Thus the development of the indexical (e.g. maps) can lead to the understanding of the non-dexical (e.g. images). Mutually related.