Marking the Land : Hunter-Gatherer Creation of Meaning in their Environment

Marking the Land investigates physical landscape marking by hunter-gatherers. When and why do hunter-gatherer groups of varying sociocultural complexity and scale place markers on their landscape? When and why are such markers limited to simple, informational signs? When and why are markers invested with symbolic meaning? And when and why is such symbolic meaning raised to the level of sacred significance? With few answers to these questions currently available this book provides a systematic consideration of these aspects of hunter-gatherer adaptation and the varied environments within which they live.

Marking the Land investigates how hunter-gatherers use physical landscape markers and environmental management to impose meaning on the spaces they occupy. The land is full of meaning for hunter-gatherers. Much of that meaning is inherent in natural phenomena, but some of it comes from modifications to the landscape that hunter-gatherers themselves make. Such alterations may be intentional or unintentional, temporary or permanent, and they can carry multiple layers of meaning, ranging from practical signs that provide guidance and information through to less direct indications of identity or abstract, highly symbolic signs of sacred or ceremonial significance. This volume investigates the conditions which determine the investment of time and effort in physical landscape marking by hunter-gatherers, and the factors which determine the extent to which these modifications are symbolically charged. Considering hunter-gatherer groups of varying sociocultural complexity and scale, Marking the Land provides a systematic consideration of this neglected aspect of hunter-gatherer adaptation and the varied environments within which they live.