The in-corporation of landscape; a phenomenological approach to the archaeology of the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica)

ANDRÈS ZARANKIN; MELISA A. SALERNO

Portland

Conferencia; XXXII SCAR and Open Science Conference & COMNAP XXIV AGM; 2012

SCAR

The aim of this work is to present the results of an experimental study that we are conducting as part of an international project on historical archaeology in Antarctica. We focus our attention on the occupation of the South Shetlands Islands, not only in the case of its first visitors in the 19th century but also in the case of the archaeologists who work in the region now. The occupation of the South Shetlands was traditionally analyzed from a cartographic and objectivist perspective which underestimated the diversity of human experience (Salerno et al. 2010). In this presentation we develop a phenomenological approach, reintegrating the relationships between the body and the surrounding world in the past and present of the islands. For the people who occupied/occupy the South Shetlands, the appropriation of the landscape was/is not such (at least not in the sense of an object which was/is distinct from oneself, and could/can be possessed as a mere good). Daily contact and familiarity with the islands offered/offer the opportunity to in-corporate them, making them flesh and transforming them into part of oneself (sensu Warnier 2001 and Merleau-Ponty 1993). Our work attempts to analyze the multiple ways in which people perceived/perceive and go round the territory. As a first step we consider the experiences of the different members of the project during the 2010, 2011 and 2012 fieldwork summer seasons. Considering that, as well as other sources of information (archaeological, documentary), we subsequently reflect on the experiences that could have lived the first inhabitants of the islands (sealers and whalers who were after oil and skins). The advantages and disadvantages of the approach will be evaluated in the presentation.