Theme:
2. Net Zero Archaeologies – Sustainability in the Past, Present and Future
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
In Search of Sustainable Pastoralism: Stories of Heritage, Resilience, and Collaboration
Content:
Responding to the climate crisis will require alternatives to intensive, high emission, and environmentally destructive modes of food production. Traditional, small-scale, and extensive forms of pastoralism are increasingly recognized as possible sources of biodiversity, carbon capture, and environmental stewardship. This session considers how archaeology and ethnography can advance the search for sustainable alternatives among the vast and variable heritage of pastoralism globally.
Models of sustainability often reduce the concept to a challenge of environmental adaptation. Yet, sustainability is always also a challenge of social reproduction. Practices that are ecologically responsible must also be maintained as socially desirable and economically viable. Thus, we encourage contributions that explore the ecological, economic, and experiential dynamics of pastoralism in the past and present. In short, how can the experiences, values, and traditional knowledge of pastoralists foster the future sustainability of pastoral livelihoods?
Contributors might address one or more key themes:
• Heritage:
How do traditions of pastoralism rely upon the transmission of specific embodied skills, sensory dispositions, and perceptions of value? How do music, storytelling, and festivities play a role in valorising pastoral heritage? Can pastoralists offer alternative models for conceiving human relationships and responsibilities to animals and ecosystems?
• Resilience:
How have humans adapted pastoral livelihoods to environmental, climatic, economic, and political dynamics in the past? Does resilience depend upon the long-term reproduction of existing social and environmental conditions or short-term flexibility in the midst of inevitable change? How have different strategies of husbandry (selective breeding, transhumance, biodiversity management, etc.) enabled resilience across time?
• Collaboration:
How can collaboration with contemporary practitioners inform understandings of the past and inspirations for the future of pastoralism? Can archaeological research contribute to the improvement of current land management and planning policies?
We especially invite contributions from researchers involved in ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, and public engagement.
Keywords:
pastoralism, sustainability, heritage, public collaboration, sensory archaeology, ethnography
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Ryan Lash (Ireland) 1
Co-organisers:
Ariadna Nieto-Espinet (Spain) 2
Francesca Romana Del Fattore (Italy) 3
Affiliations:
1. University College Dublin
2. University of Lleida
3. Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di L'Aquila e Teramo
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