Weathering Climate Change in Archaeology

Conceptual Challenges and an East African Case Study

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6043971
AutoresNik Petek (0000-0003-4552-0125, British Museum, autor de correspondencia), Paul Lane (0000-0002-9936-1310, University of Cambridge)
Año2021
Volumen31
Número3
Páginas437-454
Fecha de publicación2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCambridge Archaeological Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0959-7743 • E-ISSN: 1474-0540
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0959774321000044
OpenAlexW3127862713
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas116

Research on the social dimensions of climate change is increasingly focused on people's experiences, values and relations to the environment as a means to understand how people interpret and adapt to changes. However, a particular challenge has been making seemingly temporally and geographically distant climate change more immediate and local so as to prompt behavioural change. Environmental humanists, anthropologists and historians have tried to address the challenge through analysis of the experiences, philosophies and memories of weather. Archaeology, commonly preoccupied by hard science approaches to climate change, has largely been absent from this conversation. Nevertheless, with its insights into material outcomes of human experiences and relations, it can become integral to the discussion of ‘weathering’ climate change and historicizing weather. Here, drawing on the subtleties of responses by Ilchamus communities in Kenya and using a mix of historical and archaeological sources, we highlight their experiences of weather since the end of the Little Ice Age and explore the potential of building archaeologies of weather

Archaeology · Climate change · Geography · Weathering · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Geology · Oceanography