Paper short abstract:

The date harvest as a taskscape constitutes both nature and culture, both past and present, both those people who are present and those who are absent. How are the dynamics of space, time and memory related to the narration of taskscapes?

Paper long abstract:

The taskscape has an inherent temporality, which is essentially social. According to Ingold, people, in the performance of their tasks, also attend to each other: watching, listening, touching all constitute a perceptual monitoring of each other's presence. This paper, based on recent anthropological research, considers one such taskscape that centres around the palm groves in Nubia, an area located along the Nile in North Sudan. I will consider he activities surrounding the time/space/activities of the date harvest, which constitute both nature and culture, both past and present, both those people who are present and those who are absent. At the same time the question is to what extend the notion of a taskscape is compatible with the notion of gendered, aged, ethnically etc. 'spatiality': of 'spaces' as 'practiced places', of chronotopes, heterotopia and lieux de memoire. In other words, how are the dynamics of space, time and memory related to the narration of taskscapes?