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Bender, B. 2001. Landscapesonthemove. Journal of Social Archaeology. 1:7589.

Trends in both Anthropology and Archaeology have shifted to include therelation between peoples and places. Terms like personhood and landscape have

been reworked, and the experiences associated with these are understood to becomplex. The anthropological interest in diasporas and the movement ofpopulations is another theme in the late twentieth century. Trends in Archaeologyhave also undergone a similar transformation, particularly in the way landscapesare studied, since they are no longer perceived as static, but as a space that can beused multiple times.

In her article, Bender focuses on the themes of landscapes of diasporas andthe experiential approach, in an attempt to show that the two are closely related.Bender begins by discussing how the stress on global movement reflects a reality ofcompressed time and space (77), where many peoples, with different lifeexperiences come into contact simultaneously. The author implies that this interest

in global movements is an attempt to attenuate the consequences of imperialism.In the study of diasporas, usually the historical circumstances have been

favored over the spatial experiences. Those who have been displaced are always insome tied, in some way or another to the landscape they have just left. Also, inaccounts of global movements, it is difficult to separate the individual from thegeneral phenomenon, thus the experiential is difficult to extricate from the broadercontext. Individual accounts of displacement may provide insight into the conditionsfaced by those who are dislocated (experiences in diasporas are gendered (79)).Bender states that experiential accounts run the risk of not capturing the lagerpicture. In short, those who are constantly moving from one landscape to anotherface the instability of this experience. Dislocated peoples, once in a new landscape,develop various ways in which they can establish their identity within a space andalso establish their claim to the new space. In such circumstances the connectionswith the old landscape have a diminished intensity, and migrants might maintainthese connections by associating memories with objects.

Still, landscapes change even for those who have remained in the same place,and even for those who return to their original landscape. Upon returning to theirplace of origin, many migrants find that their former landscape has changed. Timehas passed and places do not remain static. A single landscape can also have avariant meaning for one person or a group. The relation with a place can changefrom one of displacement, to alienation, to another of tenuous acceptance of thesituation. Bender argues that the displaced do not completely break their ties withformer landscapes, but that these ties remain. Also, one familiar landscape can besurrounded by unfamiliar ones, so that a person is never completely unaware ofexperiences outside their temporal or spatial reality. Finally, Bender acknowledgesthat global movements are not a new happening, but that they have been a realityfor centuries.For discussion:

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Before the decolonization of many parts of the world, was there anawareness of the global interactions as such? Is this understanding of globalmovement restricted to the later part of the twentieth century?

Are there peoples who do not experience some sort of global movement? Orwhat counts as an unfamiliar landscape? The former doesnt seem to be the

case, since as we know, even the Trobrianders in the early twentieth centuryengaged in a regional trade network. Were they globalized?