Conversations With Landscape (Anthropological Studies of Creativity and Perception) - Hardcover

'The central theme is clear and persuasive, the focus on northern landscapes fascinating throughout. Conversations with Landscape offers a consistently excellent set of essays which will be welcomed and widely read by anthropologists, cultural geographers, visual and aesthetic theorists, and, in particular, the wide interdisciplinary community of landscape scholars and students.' John Wylie, University of Exeter, UK 'Collectively the essays of Conversations With Landscape create an innovative landscape of their own, refusing to take landscape and human engagement with it for granted. Indeed, there is much to explore. These are fascinating tales - theoretical, ethnographic, and historical - about the moving landscape. Not only is it forever changing, it touches people in a variety of ways.' Gisli Palsson, University of Iceland, Iceland '... unlike the rich and sometimes overwhelming experience of fieldwork for the archaeologist or anthropologist which becomes reduced, hidden or submerged and at times completely lost in the translation to text and final publication; here people's experiences of Iceland are vividly communicated to us, opening up our own expectations. Rather than being objective and detached, here relational experiences are created between observers and their surroundings. Rather than merely defining the experience, we too are taken on the journey.' Australian Archaeology We are deeply indebted to the co-editors, both in the geography department at the University of Iceland, for not only introducing us to this theme with contributions from Nordic (mostly Icelandic) scholars and others interested in circumpolar environments, but also for stimulating the rest of us to explore the subject of conversations in some new lights... I believe that the contents will resonate with members of the several scholarly communities, not just those interested in Nordic landscapes, literature, environmental ethics, human ecology, social theory, and biology but also in visualization, place memory, creativity and therapeutic landscape. I can envision it being used for interdisciplinary seminars, formulating research agendas, and public television documentaries.' Polar Geography 'Finally a book that could speak to me ... the strength of the inter/trans-disciplinarity in the volume's essays became evident. As a collection, they provide a comparative perspective on the conception of landscape as a cross-cultural process. Such collaborations inform us that the relationships between culture and the environment centre on the considerations of perception, positionality and practice. ... It is highly erudite, as demonstrated by the extensive bibliographies which indicate that the contributors are exceptionally well read across a number of subjects in the social sciences and humanities. ... Conversations with Landscapes strikes such a balance between openness and experimentation on the one side and comprehensiveness on the other. Between the significance of rooting ideas in the local and the importance as well as difficulty of making certain universalising generalisations in textual form.' Material World

Conversations With Landscape moves beyond the conventional dualisms associated with landscape, exploring notions of landscape and its relation with humans through the metaphor of conversation. Such an approach conceives of landscape as an actor in the ongoing communication that is inherent in any perception, recognising the often-ignored mutuality of encounters between human and non-human actors. With contributions drawn from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, geography, archaeology, philosophy, literature and the visual arts, this book explores the affects and emotions engendered in the conversations between landscape and humans. Offering scope for an original and coherent approach to the study of landscape, this book will appeal to scholars and researchers across a range of social sciences and humanities.