Landscapes of Movement: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 193453613X ISBN 13: 9781934536131

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2009

Synopsis

Landscapes of Movement originates 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 of 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 to Landscapes of Movement document 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.

PMIRC, volume 1

About this title

About the Author:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 193453613X
• ISBN 13: 9781934536131
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Snead James E., Erickson Clark L., Darling J. Andrew