Historical archaeology and new directions in environmental archaeology

摘要

The human capacity for symbolic creation has long been recognized as important for understanding human-environmental relationships. However, the potential of this recognition for bringing environmental archaeology to bear upon key areas of philosophical debate, as well important contemporary social and ecological problems has been impeded by habitual dualisms of modem Western thought. In this contribution we attempt to do three things. First we examine aspects of the historical background and philosophical bases of dualist paradigms which have limited the potential of environmental archaeology. In so doing we try to show why John Barrett's (1988; 1994; 2000) thesis on agency is relevant to the problem. Second, a framework is proposed for an environmental archaeology that focuses attention on the role of agency in the historical diversity of human ecologies. In order to illustrate the usefulness of the framework we employ examples from the archaeology of Neolithic southern Scandinavia (3500-3100 BC) and a project concerning the pre-Columbian ecological history of the western Venezuelan lowlands (400-1400 AD). In so doing we attempt to show something of what this framework implies for change in the functions and meanings of environmental archaeology.