Navigating regional landscapes with Jicarilla personal narrative
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Elizabeth M. Lynch
Abstract
Interpretation of how prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have charted the landscape they inhabited is often based on the physical materials left behind. The potential exists to interpret Jicarilla narratives as providing mental templates for movement through and perception of their environments. Personal narratives may have facilitated remembering significant paths and passing this knowledge on to others. These narratives are rich resources that inform our understanding of how the Jicarilla, and perhaps prehistoric plains people before them, may have perceived and travelled through the complex eco-corridors that buffered the Pueblos, extending onto the plains of northern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. This chapter examines whether specific Jicarilla Apache narratives encoded navigation patterns within oral tradition. Personal hunting narratives are examined as pathfinding mechanisms. Creation stories and ceremonial landmarks mentioned in the text are treated as points of significance on the landscape. Cognitive maps were developed that reveal a series of patterned movements, which may prove insightful in interpreting prehistoric movement and spatial construction.
Abstract
Interpretation of how prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have charted the landscape they inhabited is often based on the physical materials left behind. The potential exists to interpret Jicarilla narratives as providing mental templates for movement through and perception of their environments. Personal narratives may have facilitated remembering significant paths and passing this knowledge on to others. These narratives are rich resources that inform our understanding of how the Jicarilla, and perhaps prehistoric plains people before them, may have perceived and travelled through the complex eco-corridors that buffered the Pueblos, extending onto the plains of northern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. This chapter examines whether specific Jicarilla Apache narratives encoded navigation patterns within oral tradition. Personal hunting narratives are examined as pathfinding mechanisms. Creation stories and ceremonial landmarks mentioned in the text are treated as points of significance on the landscape. Cognitive maps were developed that reveal a series of patterned movements, which may prove insightful in interpreting prehistoric movement and spatial construction.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Preface xi
- Landscape in language 1
- Ethnophysiography 25
- Exploring philosophy of place 47
- Embedded in place 73
- Philosophical issues in ethnophysiography 101
- ‘Land’ and life 121
- Landscape in Western Pantar, a Papuan outlier of southern Indonesia 143
- Hawaiian storied place names 167
- Between the trees and the tides 187
- Differing conceptualizations of the same landscape 225
- A case study in Ahtna Athabascan geographic knowledge 239
- Revitalizing place names through stories and songs 261
- Language and landscape among the Tlingit 275
- Language, landscape and ethnoecology, reflections from northwestern Canada 291
- Landscape embedded in language 327
- Navajo landscape and its contexts 343
- Navigating regional landscapes with Jicarilla personal narrative 353
- Ontology of landscape in language 369
- The role of geospatial technologies for integrating landscape in language 381
- Classifying landscape character 395
- Perspectives on the ethical conduct of landscape in language research 411
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 443
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Preface xi
- Landscape in language 1
- Ethnophysiography 25
- Exploring philosophy of place 47
- Embedded in place 73
- Philosophical issues in ethnophysiography 101
- ‘Land’ and life 121
- Landscape in Western Pantar, a Papuan outlier of southern Indonesia 143
- Hawaiian storied place names 167
- Between the trees and the tides 187
- Differing conceptualizations of the same landscape 225
- A case study in Ahtna Athabascan geographic knowledge 239
- Revitalizing place names through stories and songs 261
- Language and landscape among the Tlingit 275
- Language, landscape and ethnoecology, reflections from northwestern Canada 291
- Landscape embedded in language 327
- Navajo landscape and its contexts 343
- Navigating regional landscapes with Jicarilla personal narrative 353
- Ontology of landscape in language 369
- The role of geospatial technologies for integrating landscape in language 381
- Classifying landscape character 395
- Perspectives on the ethical conduct of landscape in language research 411
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 443
