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Landscape Domestication and Archaeology

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

The term “domesticated landscape” was introduced by Douglas Yen (1989), and a decade later “landscape domestication” was defined as a process of human-mediated landscape transformation (Clement 1999), which fits comfortably into the increasingly popular conceptual framework of human or cultural niche construction (Laland and O’Brien 2010; Smith 2011). During the last decade or so the term “landscape domestication” has become increasingly visible in archaeology and historical ecology, in parallel with the increasing visibility of cultural niche construction. Some find this use of “domestication” to be inappropriate, however, as domestication is often associated with Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. A glance at a dictionary dispels confusion, as there are no mentions of evolution or selection or genetics in the definitions. The term comes from the Latin domesticäre to dwell in a house, to accustom (Harlan 1992). A house is a built environment and has been part of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

    Charles R. Clement

  2. Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil

    Mariana F. Cassino

Authors
  1. Charles R. Clement
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  2. Mariana F. Cassino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles R. Clement .

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK

    Dorian Q. Fuller

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Clement, C.R., Cassino, M.F. (2018). Landscape Domestication and Archaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_817-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_817-2

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